ULFA-I bomb threat: Assam Police to hand over two cases to NIA

Guwahati, Aug 20 (IANS) Assam Police will hand over two cases related to the ULFA-I’s bomb threat on Independence Day to the National Investigation Agency (NIA), said Director General of Police (DGP) Gyanendra Pratap Singh on Tuesday.

The DGP stated that the police have registered 10 cases related to the incident on August 15 where the banned militant outfit ULFA-I had claimed to have planted explosives in at least 25 locations across the state.

“Of these 10 cases two will be handed over to the NIA team. We have written a letter to the Central government requesting them to take over the cases immediately,” DGP Singh said.

he said that the state police have made significant progress on the case.

The DGP stated, “In Sivasagar, we have arrested four persons on suspicion of being involved with planting explosives. One of them is believed to be actively involved in the whole incident. For the sake of investigation, I cannot reveal more details in the matter but the culprits will be punished.”

He has also warned that no one who tries to stall the progress of Assam will be spared.

“The state has been witnessing rapid progress under a peaceful environment. The recent incident is an attempt to stall the development of Assam. Although I should not comment on political things; however, we must maintain strict law and order in the state,” Singh added.

Meanwhile, reacting to a bomb threat on Monday afternoon in a shopping mall in Guwahati, the top cop said, “In the last six months, many big malls in India have received hoax bomb calls. We also received such calls on Monday for a mall in Guwahati and as the police cannot take any threat on a lighter note, we evacuated the mall and conducted a thorough search. Nothing was recovered from the mall in our investigation.”

Outlawed United Liberation Front of Asom (Independent) in a statement had claimed that they had planted bombs at 25 locations in Assam and these were supposed to be exploded between 6 a.m. and 12 p.m. on Independence Day. However, due to some technical snag, the plan failed and the bombs did not explode.

The Assam Police later jumped into action and rescued explosives from some locations including Guwahati. An SIT has been formed by the police to look into the whole incident.