India’s Assam State Reels under New Year’s Terrorist Offensive

Publication: Terrorism Focus Volume: 6 Issue: 1 ^ | January 15, 2009 05:35 PM | Animesh Roul

[Cindy]

India’s northeastern state of Assam has endured a series of terrorist incidents, including bomb blasts, attacks on trains, and a fierce gun fight between security forces and terrorists, all within the first ten days of the New Year. On January 1, terrorists suspected of belonging to the separatist United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) triggered serial explosions targeting busy market places like the Birubari, Bhootnath, and Bhangagarh areas in Guwahati city, killing five persons and injuring over 50 others (Assam Tribune, January 2). The state police suspected the involvement of ULFA’s 709 Battalion in the serial blasts, though the group denied any responsibility for the attack. Terror visited Guwahati again on the evening of January 9, as suspected ULFA terrorists detonated a bicycle-borne improvised explosive device (IED) near the Northeast Frontier Railways headquarters, close to a busy market in the Maligaon area of the city. Three persons were killed and ten others were injured in the incident (The Telegraph [Kolkata], January 10; News Live TV [Guwahati], January 11).

State police could not prevent the terrorist strikes from occurring, even though they claimed to have prior information about the presence of a group of ULFA cadres in the city who were acting at the behest of the group’s leadership, based in Bangladesh and the Indo-Bhutan border region.

There were striking similarities between the latest bomb blasts and the October 30, 2008, state-wide serial explosions, which were blamed on the ULFA and the Bangladesh-based Harkat ul-Jihad Islami (HuJI) combine (see Terrorism Monitor, November 25, 2008). The other group believed to be part of the October 30 conspiracy was the National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB). Bodoland is a small part of Assam province near the border with Bhutan and is home to the Bodo people, who maintain their own language and culture.

[HuntsvilleTxVeteran]

I spent about 3 months around Silchar, Assam India.

I was due to attend an Oil Conference in the Capital
of Assam but no planes were available.

The Indian oil company decided to drive and told me
it was too dangerous for an American to take ground
transportation because only they could bribe the
terrorists.
The terrorists would kidnap any American.
This was in early 1997.