Serial bombs kill at least 68 in India's Assam state

By Biswajyoti Das

GUWAHATI, India (Reuters) - Eleven bomb blasts in quick succession ripped through the main city of India's troubled northeastern Assam state and three other towns on Thursday, killing at least 68 people and wounding 335, police said.

No one has so far claimed responsibility for the bomb blasts, which security analysts said appeared to be coordinated.

Assam has been a focus of a separatist insurgency for decades, but it has also recently suffered bomb attacks blamed on Islamist militants from neighboring Bangladesh.

Many of Thursday's blasts were in crowded markets in the state and many bombs were hidden in motorcycles or scooters.

Firefighters doused the smoldering remains of cars and motorcycles at one of the blast sites in Guwahati. One of the blasts targeted a high-security zone with a court as well as offices and the homes of senior police officials.

Television channels showed some people lying on the streets, their clothes soaked in blood. Some of the walking wounded were helped into ambulances by bystanders and police.

"Immediately after the blast there was complete darkness for a while and I later saw several bodies and severed limbs all around," said Bikash Goyal, a witness in Guwahati.

A spokesman at Assam's chief minister's office said 36 people were killed in four blasts in Guwahati. The other 32 people were killed in three other towns in the state.

A wave of bomb attacks has hit India in recent months, killing more than 125 people. Police have blamed most of those attacks on Muslim militants, although some Hindu militants have also been suspected of carrying out several attacks.

Security analysts and military intelligence officials said the Assam blasts, the worst attack in the troubled northeast, bore the hallmarks of strikes by Islamist militants.

"These blasts look like the handiwork of terrorist groups from Bangladesh, as you need sophisticated militant groups to carry out such coordinated attacks," Major General Ashok Mehta, a security analyst, told Reuters in New Delhi.

"It is quite possible that separatist groups are not involved at all."

The United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA), Assam's major separatist group often blamed for attacks, denied involvement.

The blasts were condemned across South Asia.

"I am confident that the people of India will rise unitedly against these attempts to disturb peace and harmony and to destroy our social fabric," Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said in a statement.