Islamic Terrorists Strike Delhi Court: 11 Killed, 66 Injured

SEPTEMBER 7, 2011
Eleven Killed, 66 Injured in Delhi Terror Attack

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HuJI ban gives new twist to Mecca Masjid blast case

HuJI ban gives new twist to Mecca Masjid blast case

Vishwa Mohan, TNN, Aug 8, 2010
 
NEW DELHI: Contrary to Centre’s growing estimate that alleged Hindu extremists carried out the May 2007 Mecca Mosque blast in Hyderabad, the United States and the United Nations have held the Pakistan-based Harkat-ul-Jihad Islami (HuJI) responsible for it. The UN has, in fact, termed the blast a joint operation of HuJI and Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and listed a number of other terror attacks in India in which these outfits were involved.

HuJI’s role in the Mecca Mosque blast was highlighted both by the US and the UN while banning the outfit as a `terrorist organisation’ and designating its top commander Ilyas Kashmiri as a `global terrorist’ having links with al-Qaeda on Friday. Kashmiri had recently been indicted in the US for providing material support to Pakistani-American LeT operative David Coleman Headley.

India had also suspected HuJI’s involvement in the Mecca Masjid blasts before stumbling upon evidence linking the terror act to the group aligned with Abhinav Bharat who are suspect in two other attacks on Muslim targets — the blast at a mosque in Malegaon and at the Ajmer Shrine. It is possible that the UN and US authorities did not check with India for fresh updates on investigation into the crimes, going along with the initial line of Indian investigators.

Their “finding” may trigger a controversy because investigators have uncovered more evidence linking the Mecca Masjid blast which killed 16 people and injured 40 to Hindu extremists.

The US has pointed out that HuJI — which has been operating in India and Pakistan — had carried out this terror attack besides several others including the one in Varanasi in March 2007.

Justifying its determination, the US department of state in its statement said: “These actions were taken in consultation with the department of the treasury and the department of justice…. These actions will give US law enforcement additional tools needed to restrict the flow of resources to both HuJI and Mohammad Ilyas Kashmiri.”

The same day, the UN too imposed sanctions on both HuJI and its commander Ilyas Kashmiri, subjecting both the entity and the individual to “the assets freeze, travel ban and arms embargo”. The world body has also listed a number of terror attacks which were carried out by HuJI. Besides the Mecca Masjid blast, these include the twin explosions in Hyderabad in August 2007 and suicide bombing of the US Consulate in Karachi, Pakistan, in March 2006 among others.

Though India had banned the outfit long ago, the UN’s decision may have its implications in Pakistan as all members of the world body would now be required to implement “asset freeze, travel ban and arms embargo” against HuJI and Kashmiri.

Although the American decision gave credence to what Indian investigators had initially suspected on the basis of preliminary findings in the Mecca Masjid blast, it contradicted the recent probe suspecting links of perpetrators of this blast with those of the Malegaon (September 2006), Samjhauta Express (February 2007 in Haryana), and the Ajmer Sharif dargah (October 2007) blasts. The National Investigation Agency (NIA) was recently handed over the probe of the Samjhauta blast case. The investigation will also look into whether all these blasts were actually carried out by Hindu terror outfit Abhinav Bharat or some other Hindu extremists groups.

Though the initial probe had hinted at involvement of Hindu extremist group in the Samjhauta blast, the twist came when the US last year named one Arif Qasmani of Karachi as being involved in the Mumbai suburban train blasts of July 2006 and in the Samjhauta Express blast. The NIA will now have to find out the truth.

Karachi Project: ISI, LeT getting Indian Muslim terrorists together in Karachi for attack

‘ISI, LeT getting Indian jihadis together in Karachi for attack’

Feb 01, 2010

Headley is accused of recceing Mumbai and other Indian cities for the Lashkar-e-Toiba as part of the preparations for 26/11.

The ISI has put together a team of Indian jihadis in Karachi, and is waiting to launch them into the country on a terrorist project, alleged terror suspects David Coleman Headley and Mohammad Amjad Khwaja have told their interrogators.

Headley was arrested by the FBI in Chicago in October last year, and is accused of recceing Mumbai and other Indian cities for the Lashkar-e-Toiba as part of the preparations for 26/11. Khwaja, belonging to the Harkat-ul Jihad-i Islami, was arrested on January 18, and is being held in Hyderabad.

Headley has described the “Karachi project” to FBI interrogators, details of which have been shared with New Delhi, sources said. He is believed to have said that both the ISI and the Lashkar have been training Indian nationals in terrorist activities, and using them for anti-India “projects” from time to time.

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has also been able to unearth significant details about Headley’s movements in Pakistan through his e-mail correspondence. Contents of his Gmail account were shared with New Delhi following an official request to Google.

Details of Headley’s movements in and out of India, reported in The Indian Express last Thursday, show that he flew into Mumbai from Karachi and returned to the same city twice over the last three years — once in late 2006, and then again in April 2008.

Evidence of the ISI-Lashkar Karachi project has also come independently from HuJI man Khwaja, who was picked up by Chennai Police on his return from Saudi Arabia on a Pakistani passport. Top sources said Khwaja has told his interrogators that a large number of highly-indoctrinated jihadi Indian nationals have been housed in the Pakistani port city.

Khwaja is understood to have revealed that he met alleged Indian Mujahideen terrorists Amir Raza Khan and Riyaz Bhatkal in Karachi, both of whom are staying in the city’s Defence enclave, probably under the ISI’s protection.

Khwaja, who visited Mecca and Jeddah in Saudi Arabia before he was arrested, is believed to have confessed to planning the October 2005 attack on the STF office in Hyderabad, but has been silent on his suspected role in the Mecca Masjid and Gokul Chat blasts in 2007.

Khwaja is learnt to have provided details of HuJI operations in Bangladesh, and the outfit’s coordination with Lashkar leaders based in Manshera and Muridke in Pakistan. The Hyderabad Police are expected to approach the court for permission to carry out a narco test on him shortly.

Meanwhile, a team of officers from Bangalore are also expected to interrogate Khwaja in connection with his revelations on Riaz Bhatkal, who, along with his brother Iqbal, are believed to have joined hands with hardline elements from the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) to carry out the bombings attributed to the Indian Mujahideen between 2006 and 2008. Much of the planning and preparation for these attacks took place at the port town of Bhatkal near Mangalore.

Khwaja is of interest to the Karnataka Police also on account of his alleged interaction with Amir Raza Khan, the gangster-turned-jihadi who is believed to have played a crucial supporting role in Indian Mujahideen operations.

(With Johnson TA in Bangalore)

HuJI’s South India top dog arrested in Chennai

HuJI’s  South India top commander nabbed
January 18, 2010
Zeenews Bureau

Chennai: In a major breakthrough, Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami’s top commander in South India Amjad was on Monday nabbed from Chennai on Monday.

Amjad alias- Shaikh Abdul Khwaja, who is thought to be Bangladesh based HuJI’s second-in-command, is alleged to be the mastermind behind the 2007 Hyderabad twin blasts that went off at the crowded Gokul Chat and Lumbini Park in Hyderabad leaving 42 people dead.

He was also wanted in the sensational 2005 Task force office suicide bomb attack case, in which a home guard was killed. Amjad is a native of Hyderabad.

As per reports, Khwaja, who was hiding in Karachi since 2003, had come back to India to target Republic day function in one of the South Indian cities.

He is now being brought to Hyderabad for further investigations.

Islamic terrorists free Juhi Chawla’s uncle in Pakistan after paying Rs 16 million

Mon,13 Apr 2009

Juhi Chawla’s uncle freed in Pak after paying Rs 16 million

Press Trust Of India
Karachi, April 12, 2009

Pakistani filmmaker Satish Anand, an uncle of Bollywood actress Juhi Chawla, has been freed by his abductors after 6 months in captivity in exchange for whopping Rs 16 million as ransom amount.

Anand was kidnapped from the southern port city of Karachi and was freed in Bannu district of the North West Frontier Province yesterday after prolonged negotiations over the payment of ransom.

Sources were quoted by Dawn newspaper as saying that he was released after the payment of Rs 16 million as ransom.

He was reportedly kidnapped by the outlawed Harkat-ul-Mujahideen, which is now headed by Ilyas Kashmiri.

Police claimed Anand was released by his abductors after one of their accomplices, Major (retired) Haroon-ur-Rasheed, was arrested in Punjab province. They said five other suspects had also been arrested.

Anand, who owns a film studio and had earlier served as chairman of Pakistan’s Censor Board, was kidnapped on October 20 last year.

Juhi Chawla’s uncle freed in Pakistan after six months

Karachi, April 12: Well-known Pakistani film producer and distributor Satish Anand, an uncle of Bollywood actress Juhi Chawla, was freed by his abductors after six months in captivity for a ransom of Rs.10.6 million, media reports said Sunday.

Anand, who had served as Pakistan’s censor board chairman, was kidnapped Oct 20 last year by two unidentified gunmen while he was on his way home here.

According to The News, law enforcement agencies traced the kidnappers to Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province (NWFP) and engaged in a negotiation for his release.

On Saturday, officials posing as family members of the film producer delivered the ransom money to the kidnappers, who belong to a faction of the Harkat-ul-Jihad-i-Islami (HuJI), in NWFP’s Bannu region, the report said.

After safely securing Anand, the officials launched a crackdown on the group and arrested five suspects.

Meanwhile, Anand is said to have been shifted to Islamabad.

The HuJI group, headed by Ilyas Kashmiri, had earlier demanded a huge ransom for releasing Anand, but later settled for Rs.10.6 million.

— IANS

Sachin Tendulkar kidnap plot: Pakistani Islamic terrorist came to secure release of HUJI men

Tendulkar kidnap plot: Paki came to secure release of HUJI men
PTIFriday, March 6, 2009

New Delhi: The prosecution on Friday, told a Delhi court that a Pakistan-based Harkat-ul-jehadi Islami (HUJI) terrorist, who along with five others are accused of plotting to kidnap Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly, had confessed that he came to abduct the cricketers and then bargain the release of two members of the outfit.

“Arshad Khan, a native of Multan in Pakistan, had come along with others to India to kidnap the cricketers and bargain the release of two terrorists of HUJI who were then lodged in Tihar and a Rajasthan Jail,” senior public prosecutor Anita Hooda told additional sessions judge Pinki.

The prosecutor was referring to Khan’s confessional statement, recorded on July 11, 2002 by a deputy commissioner of Police under tough anti-terror law Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA).

The outfit wanted to ensure the release of its members, Nasarullah Langrial and Abdul Rahim, then lodged in Indian jails, she said.

Advancing the final arguments in the case relating to the plot to kidbap the two cricketers, Hooda said Arshad, who had taken a 40-day training alongside Taliban terrorists in Afganistan, had sneaked into India through Bangladesh.

The confessions, recorded under the POTA, are admissible as evidence, Hooda said, adding Arshad along with a co-accused was nabbed at Hazarat Nizamuddin railways station here on October 29, 2001 when he had come to deliver arms and ammunition to his accomplices.

The advancing of arguments in the seven-year-old case remained inconclusive and would continue on March 13.

The plot to abduct the cricketers did not fructify in 2002 as the terrorists assigned the task could not get logistical support, the prosecutor had said.

Besides the six terrorists, key accused Jalaluddin, who was declared a proclaimed offender during the trial, had also planned to attack the Bhaba Atomic Research Centre (BARC) in Mumbai, she said.

All the six accused, who were arrested in 2001 and February and March in 2002, have been booked under various provisions of POTA, the IPC and the Explosives Act, which provide for maximum sentence of death penalty.

They are charged with hatching conspiracy to wage war against the state and keeping explosives.

Besides three Pakistan-based accused, Tariq Mohammed, Ashfaq Ahmed and Arshad Khan, the others are – Mufti Israr, Ghulam Qadir Bhatt and Ghulam Mohd Dar.

Kolkata on the hitlist of ISI

ISI planning to bomb Kolkata

25 Dec 2008

NEW DELHI: After wreaking havoc in Mumbai, major towns of West Bengal, including Kolkata, are next on the hit list of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence.

Top sources in the Union Home Ministry confirmed that a group of Harkat-ul-Jihad-al- Islami (HuJI) terrorists has made repeated attempts to enter India recently from Bangladesh through the ‘chicken neck’ corridor.

“There is a possibility that some HuJI terrorists have already crossed over with arms and ammunition and are heading to team up with Kamtapur Liberation Organisation (KLO), Indian insurgent group, to carry out lethal terror strikes in West Bengal during end-December and early January,” sources said.

Another intelligence report on Wednesday stated that ULFA militants in Bangladesh are likely to enter through the Karimganj district of Assam, a temporary departure from their established routes of transit in Meghalaya.

Both the states have been alerted by the Centre. The alerts come close on the heels of the arrest in Jammu of three Pakistanis, one of them allegedly an army regular. The trio had come from Dhaka and apparently lived in Kolkata before proceeding to Jammu and Kashmir.

Working in cahoots with Bangladesh’s espionage agency Directorate General of Forces Intelligence (DGFI), the ISI, with its sinister plan of ‘bleeding India through thousand wounds’, has made contacts with several Indian insurgent groups.

The recently carried out blasts in Assam that killed 89 were part of this design where the handlers in Bangladesh had roped in ULFA and National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB).

KLO that came into existence in 1995 with the help of ULFA is active in six districts of West Bengal _ South Dinajpur, North Dinajpur, Coochbehar, Jalpaiguri, Malda and Darjeeling _ and four districts of lower Assam _ Kokrajhar, Bongaigaon, Dhubri and Goalpara.

Intelligence agenciesclaim that both ISI and DGFI have made KLO an active partner with HuJI and are constantly helping it to upgrade its strike power by supplying arms, ammunitions and explosives.

“KLO chief Jeevan Singh is sheltered in Bangladesh, and is a protégé of the ULFA,” a senior official said. He hangs around in northern Bangladesh, close to his home constituency. Singh, along with Ranjan Daimary of the NDFB and Paresh Baruah of ULFA are said to be paying off the debt of protection from the HuJI-ISI nexus through “disturbing” eastern India. “Keeping them there cannot be a charitable deed, they would have to pay a price,” said a senior official.

Huji’s islamic plan in Assam: Foment trouble and bleed India

Why HuJI has found a new hotbed

Manan Kumar
01 Nov 2008

When clashes erupted between ethnic Bodos and ‘immigrant Bangladeshi’ Muslims in two rugged-terrain districts of Assam early last month, many predicted that it was only the manifestation of a simmering issue, and the worse was coming. They didn’t get it wrong: a deadly serial bomb blast ripped through the state on October 30.

The blasts were preceded by shrill anti-India war cries from several Bangladeshi Muslim-dominated villages of northern Udalaguri and Darrang districts where Pakistani flags were hoisted. The incident exposed the damage that a vote-hungry government can do to its people even as the virus of communal hatred was spreading wide and fast. The retaliation came this Thursday as several Upper Assam towns were rocked by explosions.

The scale and precision of the latest blasts and the steady flow of intelligence point a clear finger towards the involvement of Harkat-ul-Jehad-al-Islami (HuJI) of Bangladesh,  born in 1992 with the assistance of Osama bin Laden’s International Islamic Front.

But the warning that India’s Northeast, particularly Assam, is going to the next target of HuJI’s jehadi terror has been on the wall for quite some time. Worried conflict analysts had been pointing to the brisk demographic changes occurring in parts of Assam and the increasing infiltration of ISI-backed HuJI-B into that state’s Bangladeshi Muslim pockets. Terror would be exported from the eastern borders rather than the west, they had cautioned.

With Pakistan under pressure from the US to bring an end to its association with jehadi outfits, the Northeast, with its 200-odd insurgent groups and a clutch of weak governments, becomes an automatic choice for the ISI to exploit the region’s fragility. The Pakistani intellegince agency also found a natural ally in Bangladeshi fundamentalist elements.

From late 1990s onwards, Bangladesh has witnessed a rapid increase in the number of madrassas. The aim of these schools, originally meant to impart Quranic education, has been to create a large base of fundamentalist youth. The same period also saw the HuJI-B and other fundamentalist outfits like Jamaat-e-Islami and Islami Chhatra Shibir making increasing efforts to destabilise Bangladesh and establish Islamic rule in Dhaka.

In June 2001, about 25 al Qaeda activists visited HuJI training camps to prepare its cadre for much tougher terror tasks. It is no coincidence that during the same time, Bangladesh was alerted to the cries of Amra Sobai Hobo Taliban, Bangla Hobe Afghanistan (we will all become Taliban and we will turn Bangladesh into Afghanistan). The HuJI, having created a strong base in Bangladesh by then, turned its focus to the troubled Northeast following instructions from ISI and al Qaeda. The immediate motive was obvious: foment trouble and bleed India by penetrating Assam’s migrant Bangladeshi Muslim population and preparing them to undertake terror attacks.

The long-term objective of HuJI, security agencies believe, is to cut supply lines to the Northeast by severing India’s Chicken Neck corridor. Even Census 2001 shows that the migrant Bangladeshi Muslim population on both sides of the corridor had increased manifold.

Sources in the intelligence agencies claim that HuJI-B has since then not only forged alliances with groups like United Liberation Front of Asom, Muslim Liberation Tigers of Assam, Kamtapur Liberation Organisation, Hynniewtrep National Liberation Council and Peoples’ Liberation Army. It also established bases and sleeper cells in Kokrajhar, Naugaon, Karimganj, Bokaghat and Lumding.

Latest intelligence reports indicate that ISI has provided more men and material for military training to HuJI and its agents, including men from Taliban and al Qaeda. They are training both Bangladeshi and Indian cadres of HuJI in Kurigram and Rangpur areas of Bangladesh.

manan24@rediffmail.com

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.