Several blasts rock Assam, one killed 7 hurt

GUWAHATI, Thursday (AFP) One policeman was killed and seven people wounded in the northeast Indian state of Assam Wednesday when rebels exploded a bomb in an airport, blew up a power transmission tower and triggered blasts in markets, police said.

The string of attacks in a market in western Bongaigoan district, some 200 kilometres (124 miles) west of Assam's main city of Guwahati, was blamed on the outlawed United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) which is fighting for an independent homeland. One policeman was killed and four others wounded, some critically, when explosives concealed in the market exploded, police said.

"There was a bomb planted in a market in Bongaigoan which a team of policemen tried to defuse, but it went off killing one policeman on the spot and injuring four of his colleagues," said the police spokesman. Three civilians were injured when a blast rocked a vegetable market in Sonapur, 30 kilometres (18 miles) east of Guwahati.

There were two other blasts in Assam's western district of Dhubri and three serial blasts in Guwahati which damaged government property.

"Three blasts took place in Guwahati outside a local police station, near a hospital, and the international airport," said the spokesman. "The blast at the airport damaged the parking lot. No one was hurt."

Suspected ULFA militants also toppled an electricity transmission tower in Sibsagar and detonated a bomb outside a telephone exchange in eastern Nagoan.

A landmine blast also damaged a crude oil pipeline near Lankachi village in Tinsukia district, 550 kilometers (341 miles) from Guwahati.