A seven-year-old child was killed and over 20 injured in a bomb blast at a weekly market in Sonitpur district of Assam on Thursday afternoon.
According to the police, unidentified militants detonated a powerful blast at Gorubandha market at Missamari in Sonitpur district at approximately 3 pm today, injuring over 20 persons. One of the injured, seven-year-old Anuj Kumar Gaur, died on the way to the hospital.
The death toll is likely to go up as many of the injured victims are reportedly in a serious condition.
The improvised explosive device was planted on a bicycle that was parked near a shop in the market. The blast site is located near an army base and the local police station.
The anti-talks faction of the militant group National Democratic Front of Bodoland may have triggered the blast, said police officials.
In another incident, suspected NDFB militants hurled a grenade at a crowded site at Rakshakmari, approximately 18 km away from Dhekiajuli, at 6 pm on Thursday. Two people were inured in the incident.
The anti-talks faction of the NDFB, led by fugitive chairman Ranjan Daimari alias D R Nabla, has stepped up its subversive activities in north Assam.
The outfit was held guilty by the Central Bureau of Investigation for triggering the serial blasts in the state on October 30 last year, which killed 80 people and injured over 400 in four places across the state, including capital city Guwahati.
