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| Sunday, 22 January 2006 |
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NEW DELHI, Jan 21, (AFP) A bomb exploded Friday at the entrance of a state-owned petroleum Refinery in the northeastern Indian state Assam, leaving 10 people injured, the police said. A police spokesman said an "improvised explosive device" went off at the fortified facility's gates in Assam's main city of Guwahati. "Eight paramilitary troopers and two civilians were injured in the explosion," he said, describing the blast as powerful. Hospital doctors said those injured were in serious condition. "There was a big blast and what followed was utter chaos as the area was not well-lit and so nobody knew what had happened," said Dhiraj Nath, an eyewitness. Officials said there was no damage to the refinery belonging to Indian Oil Corp, a Fortune 500 company. None of Assam's several guerrillas groups have so far claimed responsibility for the attack but the police said it suspected that the blast was carried out by rebels belonging to the banned United Liberation Front of Asom. The guerrilla group along with five others Thursday called a 17-hour general strike to protest against India's annual Republic Day celebrations on January 26. Militants in the seven insurgency-wracked northeastern states have for years been boycotting national events to protest New Delhi's rule over the oil and timber-rich region. |
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