Explosives aimed to target Guwahati Airport recovered, defused

Guwahati: Ahead of the Independence Day on Monday, powerful explosives have been recovered that were meant to attack the LGB International Airport here and other major areas of the city, police said on Saturday.

Two extremists on a motorcycle threw a box of explosives they were carrying and fled after seeing a joint police and CRPF checking point last night near the Lokopriya Gopinath Bordoloi Airport, police officials said.

Upon checking the box, a powerful bomb and three grenades that were meant to target the airport and crowded areas of the capital city were found, they said.

Bomb disposal squad safely defused the explosives in the nearby Deepor beel (freshwater lake), they said.

Assam has witnessed intensified militant violence in the past week with the latest one on last night when ULFA-Independent militants shot dead two persons and injured six others in an indiscriminate firing at Philobari Bahbon village in upper Assam's Tinsukia district.

In the same area on Thursday, the militant outfit had exploded an improvised explosive devise (IED) in a drain on the Philobari bypass road near Badalbheta Tea Estate, no one was injured in the blast.

14 people were killed and over 20 were injured on August 5 by heavily-armed NDFB(S) insurgents at Balajan in Kokrajhar district.

Meanwhile, security measures have been tightened in the state to prevent recurrence of such violent incidents with the police and para-military forces intensifying security measures for the safety of people, state Parliamentary Affairs Minister Chandra Mohan Patowary said in the Assembly today.

The state government has decided to give Rs 5 lakh compensation to the next of kin of the deceased and Rs 1 lakh to the injured, Patowary added.