At least eight people, including a 10-year-old, were killed and over 60 injured in two bomb blasts and two grenade attacks across Assam on the eve of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to the state. Suspected ULFA militants, gearing for the outfit’s 30th raising day on Tuesday, triggered blasts in Maligaon in Guwahati and Dhekiajuli in Sonitpur district while grenade attacks took place in Mankachar in Dhubri district and at Chokihola in Karbi Anglong.

In New Delhi, PMO sources said there was no change in the Prime Minister’s programme. Singh, who represents Assam in the Rajya Sabha, will be addressing poll meetings in Dispur and Dibrugarh on Tuesday. His visit to Karbi Anglong was cancelled in view of a bandh called by the Karbi Longri National Liberation Front.

Subhash Das, Principal Secretary (Home), told The Indian Express: “We strongly suspect that the Guwahati and Dhekiajuli blasts are the handiwork of the ULFA which usually carries out such acts in the run-up to its foundation day.”

Police said seven people were killed when a powerful bomb exploded around 2 pm in Maligaon, near the headquarters of the Northeast Frontier Railway and barely 100 metres from the Jalukbari police station, setting ablaze two cars and 25 motorcycles.

Police suspect the explosive device was kept either in a car or a motorcycle. Six people were killed instantly and another succumbed to injuries after jumping from an adjacent building which had caught fire.

While four persons were injured in a blast in Dhekiajuli, one person was killed and another injured in a grenade attack on a vehicle hired by police in the Mankachar area.

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