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5 CRPF men killed in Goalpara blast

By CORRESPONDENT

DUDHNOI, July 30 � Five CRPF personnel were killed and 40 others injured when the bus on which they were travelling was blown off by a powerful blast on NH 37 at Bhalukdubi point near Goalpara at around 8.30 am.

Four of the five killed were identified as Punam Sen, Ranbir Singh, Sri Nibas and Mongal Nayak of the 12 Battalion of CRPF. Sources said that 20 of the 40 injured have been shifted to GMCH, Guwahati immediately.

According to a report, the powerful bomb was planted on the western edge of the highway and was triggered off by a 50-feet long wired remote control from the thick surrounding jungle.

A PTI report from Goalpara stated that the CRPF headquarters in New Delhi has rushed its Additional Director General (Training) Rakesh Jaruhar for an on-the-spot assessment.

The vehicle was badly damaged in the blast and blood was splattered all over the vehicle, the sources said. Wires and batteries used in the blast were recovered from the spot of the ambush.

Meanwhile the police asserted that the anti-talk faction of the NDFB, which has a stronghold in the area, was behind the attack, even as the ULFA called up local news television channels here claiming responsibility for the attack.

ULFA publicity wing member Anu Buragohain called up the TV channels asserting that the underground outfit�s long silence should not be read as a sign of weakness and demanded that the government show its responsibility towards holding talks with his organisation. Buragohain threatened to intensify their violent activities in future.

Official sources, however, said the attack was carried out by the National Democratic Front of Bodoland (Daimary) which is opposed to peace talks. The faction�s chairman, Ranjan Daimary, is now lodged in the Goalpara district jail.

Today�s attack is the second major assault on central para-military forces in a week. NDFB(D) ultras killed four jawans of the Sashastra Seema Bal and injured two others in an ambush at Amlaiguri in Chirang district bordering Bhutan on Monday.

Daimary�s followers had also recently vowed to continue their fight for Bodoland, the sources said.

A search operation has been launched to nab the attackers.

Sources in the police were apprehensive that the ULFA claim could hamper the peace process at a time when the Centre�s peace interlocutor PC Haldar had a very �cordial� meeting with the group�s chairman Arabinda Rajkhowa in Guwahati Central Jail recently to initiate the peace talks.

On July 23, Haldhar had an hour-long �satisfactory� meeting with the jailed ULFA supremo and discussed the process of initiating peace talks with the proscribed outfit.

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