Muslim savagery pounds Assam: Human limbs, blood everywhere in Guwahati market after terrorist attack

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Human limbs, blood everywhere in Guwahati market after blast

Guwahati, Oct 30: Why did I come to the market? an inconsolable Rupali Bora sobs. She was unwilling to go to the Ganeshguri vegetable market, but her husband persuaded her. Now he was lying dead – one among the 61 killed in a string of serial blasts to rock Assam Thursday.

Rupali sustained injuries to her limbs, although she is out of danger.

Shiba Sharma cannot get over the horror of seeing his cousin tossed up in the air and landing in a pool of blood, his limbs dismembered.

“We came together in the morning and my cousin wanted to have a smoke. He entered a kiosk and I was waiting on the pavement a little away,” Sharma said.

“Then I saw his body in the air and his limbs were flung all over the place,” Sharma said in a state of shock.

Anil Das and his wife Mamoni were luckier. They decided to visit the market, in the heart of Assam’s main city of Guwahati, around 11 a.m.

“We were shopping at the Ganeshguri vegetable market when suddenly there was a very loud sound and we were engulfed in thick smoke,” said Anil. “There were fireballs going above our heads and we thought that it was the end of the world.”

Fortunately for the couple, they survived the attack with just minor injuries.

The scene at the sites of blasts in Guwahati was chaotic.

“Human limbs were strewn all over the place and blood was splattered everywhere,” said Anupam Mahanta, a witness.

“I saw at least 10 bodies burnt beyond recognition, some of them with just their torsos,” another witness, Biplap Baruah, said.

Twelve bombs went off in less than an hour in Guwahati as well as in the western districts of Barpeta, Kokrajhar and Bongaigaon. More than 300 people were injured, many of whom are in a critical condition.

— IANS

Assam blasts: Several Bangladeshi Muslim groups involved in Assam blasts

Deadly cocktail, say intelligence agencies

Vijay Thakur
NEW DELHI, Oct. 31: Intelligence agencies have concluded that it was not HuJI alone but other Bangladesh-based terror outfits such as Islamic Chatra Sangh and Jamait-e-Islami that joined hands with Ulfa in planning and executing yesterday’s deadly serial blasts in Assam.

Central Intelligence agencies had noticed suspicious movements by Islamic Chatra Sangh and Jamait-e-Islami cadre in Dibrugarh and Guwahati nearly 15 days back. The information was passed on to local intelligence agencies in Assam. A week before this top brass of Ulfa had a meeting with HuJI leaders in Bangladesh where the blueprint of the terror attacks may have been finalised, intelligence officials claimed.

They said they had sufficient inputs to link a cocktail of Ulfa, HuJI, ICS and J-e-I with the serial blasts. “We strongly suspect that this time it is not only Harkat-ul-Jehad-e-Islami but also ICS and J-e-I which had planned the terror attack with the help of the Ulfa leadership. The close connections between HuJI and Ulfa are no secret to intelligence agencies. We also know that senior Ulfa leaders are getting support of HuJI in Bangladesh where top Ulfa leadership is hiding,” the official pointed out.

While there is no denying that top Ulfa leaders have given logistic and strategic support to these outfits in Assam, intelligence agencies are silent on whether the lower level Ulfa cadre is aware of this tie-up. “Ulfa top brass cannot survive in Bangladesh without the tacit support of HuJI, ICS and J-e-I, and we have reasons to believe that the Assam blasts were planned in the neighbouring country,” the official said. End

Assam’s dark day reflects siege within
Oct 31, 2008, The Statesman  (thestateman.net does not archive its articles)
Nirendra Dev
NEW DELHI, Oct 30: Amid allegations of Intelligence failure for the “worst” tragedy to hit the people of Assam, there’s no denying that emergence of Islamic fundamentalism, native Adivasi anguish and growing involvement of the foreign hand have brought in new twists to the security scenario in the state.

Even as the top brass gets involved in a foolproof post-mortem of the blasts that left at least 66 people dead and over 470 injured, Intelligence sources said such a complex scenario only helps “misguided persons” play the “lethal proxy war weapon of ISI”.
In addition to the Ulfa, Assam is host to organisations like the National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) and the Bodo Liberation Tigers (BLT). “Moreover, at least 15 Islamic militant groups have surfaced threatening peace and more vitally the demographic pattern of the land,” sources said.

In 2004, the parochial movements took another twist when the All Adivasi National Liberation Army (AANLA) was formed in the hills of Karbi Anglong district claiming to cater to the interest of the tea plantation workers’ community. After making occasional noises, the fledgling outfit had shot into the limelight last year after it claimed responsibility for the 13 December 2007 bomb attack on the Delhi-bound Rajdhani Express train that killed five passengers and injured nine others.

The Union home ministry views this nascent outfit as a “shadowy Adivasi insurgent group” with definite links with northeastern separatist groups like Naga and Tripura-based groups and a “possible” nexus with the Maoists and ISI support base in Bangladesh. The group is also demanding ST status for the community and is believed to have a sizeable cadre strength in Karbi Anglong, Golaghat and Jorhat districts, and tea-growing areas of Sivasagar, Dibrugarh and Tinsukia.

Among the Islamic groups, outfits that have kept army and intelligence officials on their toes are Islamic Revolutionary Front (IRF), Islamic Liberation Army of Assam (ILAA, Sibsagar), Islamic United Liberation Army (Nagaon, founded in 1980s), Assam Minority Liberation Army (AMLA), Student Islamic Movement of India (active both in Assam and Manipur), Muslim United Liberation Front of Assam (MULFA), Muslim Liberation Tigers of Assam (MULTA, founded in 1993), Muslim Liberation Front of Assam, United Special Reforms of Assam (active in Dhubri district), Muslim Volunteers Force (active in Barpeta), Tigers Liberation Front of Assam (active in Hojai, founded in 1992 ~ a post Babri development), Islamic Revolutionary Army (Assam), Saddam Bahini (Assam, a post Gulf War development), Islamic Sevak Sangh (in Kamrup area, post Babri development aiming to counter RSS’s Hindu chauvinism) and Bharatiya Islam Sanskar Partibad Bahini). In fact, only last month the Central government got feedback from the state special branch confirmed by the IB that the ISI had managed to infiltrate into Assam a number of its agents in the guise of Imams. The Jamaat-e-Islami of both Pakistan and Bangladesh are maintaining close links with Muslim militant organisations, said the report though there was no specific alert about any such major serial explosions. Sources said while the local hands “could execute” the work, blasts of such ominous contours could take place only with foreign support. In fact, the sources said, the government needs to understand that such acts are not confined to Pakistan and Bangladesh, some tightrope walking is called for even while dealing with countries like Myanmar, Nepal and Bhutan besides China’s strong “ideological support” to various northeast militant groups. While during the Vajpayee regime in 2005, some success came in when Bhutanese forces were allowed joint operations with the Indian army in Bhutan, the government is yet to get any favourable response from Myanmar. Officials fear that ISI is back to its multi-pronged proxy war strategy like encouraging militant outfits on communal lines, supplying explosives and promoting communal strife between Hindus and Muslims.

Assam blasts: One Muslim detained, Islamic ISF-IM claims responsibilty, threatens more terror attacks all over Bharat maata

ISF-Indian Mujahideen claims responsibility for Assam blasts
31 Oct 2008

GUWAHATI: Little-known Islamic Security Force-Indian Mujahideen (ISF-IM) on Friday claimed responsibility for the serial blasts that killed 77 people in Assam and warned of more such attacks.

In an SMS message sent to local ‘News Live’ television channel, the ISF-IM claimed responsibility for yesterday’s blasts and threatened to carry out more bomb explosions in several parts of the country.

The message said, “We thank all our holy members and partners” for successfully carrying out the task.

The SMS was received on the mobile of the channel’s input desk from a Reliance connection with the number 98646-93690.

The mobile phone was subsequently switched off and security forces traced it to Moirabari in Central Assam’s Nagaon district registered in the name of one Nazir Ahmed.

Police officials are investigating the matter. The outfit was formed in 2000 in Lower Assam’s Bodo-dominated areas “to counter” the Bodo Liberation Tigers (BLT) and NDFB militants, police sources said.

The full text of the SMS is: “We, ISF-IM, take the responsibility of yesterday blast. We warn all of Assam and India for situation like this in future. We thank all our holy members and partners. AAamin” .

One arrested for Assam serial blasts
31 Oct 2008, 1845 hrs IST, AGENCIES

GUWAHATI: One person has been arrested in connection with the Assam serial blasts. Zulfikar Ali from the Nagaon district, whose vehicle was used on the blast, has been held.

Investigating agencies on Friday questioned over 20 persons as they probed a possible HuJI-ULFA link behind the deadly serial blasts in Assam which claimed 77 lives, while curfew was clamped in worst-hit Ganeshguri here after protesters went on a rampage.

The scale and planning behind the blasts have led the police to suspect local militants joining hands with terrorist outfits to carry out the coordinated strikes.

A team of NSG experts from New Delhi visited the blast sites at Ganeshguri, the deputy commissioner’s office and Fancy Bazaar here to make an on-the-spot assessment of yesterday’s terror strikes that left over 450 wounded.

“We are not taking seriously the denial by the United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA-of being responsible for the blasts) because on earlier occasions also they have done so”, a top Assam police official said.

The ULFA cadres are being trained by the jehadi militants and there is definitely a link between the two which is being investigated, he said.

While suspecting the hand of the Bangladesh-based Harkat-ul Jehad-e-Islami (HuJI) outfit, police claimed to have got clues that the blasts were carried out by people having local links. Thus the ULFA angle has come in, the official said.

Schools and educational institutions remained closed in Guwahati while a total shut-down was observed in Kokrajhar following a bandh call by VHP and BJP.

The toll in the serial blasts in Assam has risen to 77 with 11 more people succumbing to their injuries overnight.

Principal secretary (home) and official spokesman Subhas Das said eight people died in Guwahati, which now alone accounts for 41 deaths.

Three others succumbed to their injuries in Barpeta taking the toll there to 15.

The number of deaths in Kokrajhar remained at 21, he said.

In the deadliest terror attacks in Assam, near- simultaneous blasts had ripped through Guwahati, Kokrajhar, Bongaigaon and Barpeta on Thursday, killing 66 people and injuring about 470 others.

The protesters gathered near a flyover – a few metres from the blast site, shouting slogans against the government’s alleged failure to provide security to the common people.

Deputy commissioner Prateek Hajela said the protesters, turned violent and went on a rampage attacking the security personnel deployed in the area.

The police first resorted to lathicharge to disperse the protesters but later fired in the air, Hajela said.

Ganeshguri had witnessed protests soon after the blasts on Thursday with the mob torching a police vehicle, a fire tender and two ambulances.

They had also tried to storm the secretariat carrying two charred bodies in a push cart.

The entry and exit road to the area has been sealed since the blasts and only a few vehicles were plying on the Ganeshguri flyover, which connects the Guwahati-Shillong road.

All shops and commercial establishments have remained closed in the area since morning. Attendance in the offices was also thin. Frequency of public transport operations dropped significantly in the morning hours.

BJP leader L K Advani visited the blast site near the deputy commissioner’s office where he faced a group of angry lawyers who shouted slogans ‘Advani go back’.

He also visited the Guwahati Medical College Hospital and met the injured in the blast.

All examinations scheduled under the Gauhati University and State Education Board of Assam (SEBA) have been cancelled till further directive.

Opposition Asom Gana Parishad observed a ‘Black Day’ today with its leaders and cadres sporting black badges.

Lawyers of both High Court and Sessions Court in Guwahati abstained from work and held protests outside the court premises.

Bangladesh-based HuJI militants along with other jehadi outfits are suspected to be behind the explosions. Although ULFA has denied its involvement in the terror attacks, police do not rule out the hand of ULFA behind the serial blasts with help from HuJI or jehadi elements.

Of the six blasts in Guwahati, RDX was used in two of the explosions, chief minister Tarun Gogoi has said, adding a special task force has been set up to unearth the conspiracy behind the blasts.

Assam has witnessed massive ethnic violence since early 1980s and ULFA-sponsored insurgency but this is the first time that a terror attack in the form of serial blasts rocked the state in such a magnitude.