At least 10 people were killed and over 50 injured when two powerful bombs exploded this evening in two busy localities of Guwahati. Police said the banned ULFA was behind the blasts.

The blasts come within four days of an annual conference of the DGPs of West Bengal and the north-eastern states, and two days after police gunned down top ULFA leader Charan Majhi.

Meanwhile, alarmed by the increasing number of ULFA attacks, the Union Home Ministry has called a review meeting on Monday.

Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi, who arrived in New Delhi today, is likely to attend the meeting. “It’s an act of cowardice,” he told The Indian Express. “Today’s incidents were not totally unanticipated.”

The first blast was around 6.25 pm in the busy Jaynarayan Road or Chai Gali area in the heart of Fancy Bazaar, the commercial hub of the city. The second took place a few minutes later and some 12 km away, in the Pattharquarry area, not far from the Guwahati refinery and the Narangi cantonment.

Guwahati SSP Nitul Gogoi said six people died on the spot in the Fancy Bazaar blast, four in the one at Pattharquarry.

— (With Rajeev Bhattacharyya)