The 2009 Assam serial blasts occurred on 6 April 2009 in the Maligaon and Dhekiajuli areas of the

Assam Assam (; ) is a state in northeastern India, south of the eastern Himalayas along the Brahmaputra and Barak River valleys. Assam covers an area of . The state is bordered by Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh to the north; Nagaland and Manipur ...

ese capital

Guwahati Guwahati (, ; formerly rendered Gauhati, ) is the biggest city of the Indian state of Assam and also the largest metropolis in northeastern India. Dispur, the capital of Assam, is in the circuit city region located within Guwahati and is the ...

on the eve of the Assamese

Rajya Sabha The Rajya Sabha, constitutionally the Council of States, is the upper house of the bicameral Parliament of India. , it has a maximum membership of 245, of which 233 are elected by the legislatures of the states and union territories using si ...

MP and Indian Prime Minister

Manmohan Singh Manmohan Singh (; born 26 September 1932) is an Indian politician, economist and statesman who served as the 13th prime minister of India from 2004 to 2014. He is also the third longest-serving prime minister after Jawaharlal Nehru and Indir ...

's visit to address poll rallies. It also came during the campaigning phase of the

2009 Indian general election 9 (nine) is the natural number following and preceding . Evolution of the Arabic digit In the beginning, various Indians wrote a digit 9 similar in shape to the modern closing question mark without the bottom dot. The Kshatrapa, Andhra and ...

Background

In the light of 2008's attacks around the country, particularly the

Mumbai attacks Terrorism in India, according to the Ministry of Home Affairs (India), Home Ministry, poses a significant threat to the people of India. Compared to other countries, India faces a wide range of terror groups. Terrorism found in India includ ...

, as well as other bombings in Assam in both 2008 and New Year's Day 2009, this adds to the instability of the insurgency-racked

Seven Sister States , native_name_lang = mni , settlement_type = , image_skyline = , image_alt = , image_caption = , motto = , image_map = Northeast india.png , ...

. After the

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second- ...

attacks security in the country was a major concern due to the elections. This led to a vociferous debate in the country of the ability to manage security along with the elections.

Follow-up

Earlier in the day suspected members of the militant outfit Karbi Longri National Liberation Front exploded a bomb near a BSF camp at Jengpha in the central Karbi Anglong district. Prime Minister

was also scheduled to hold a poll rally in the district headquarters of Diphu, which itself was cancelled from the previous day due to unspecified reasons.

Bomb attacks

The DGP of Assam said 7 were killed and 56 injured in the Maligaon blast at around 14:00 IST. The blast also sparked a fire that set ablaze two cars and 20 motorcycles as it spread to a three-storey building housing the area police station. Hours later, five people were reported injured in the Dhekiajuli blast that was, according to reports, planted on a cycle. Six were killed at the blast site, while one succumbed to injuries after jumping from an adjacent building which had caught fire.

Perpetrators

Though it was still too early to point any fingers the media said "suspected ULFA militants" had a hand in carrying out this attack. Assam DGP J M Srivastav said that "this is the handiwork of ULFA boys ahead of the outfit's 'Raising Day,'" while adding that the militants used hi-tech explosives.

Reactions

Assam CM

Tarun Gogoi Tarun Gogoi (11 October 1936 – 23 November 2020) was an Indian politician who served as the Chief Minister of Assam from 2001 to 2016. He was a member of the Indian National Congress and led the party to a record three consecutive electoral vi ...

immediately acknowledged a lapse in security, saying the attack could have been prevented.

CNN-IBN CNN-News18 (originally CNN-IBN) is an Indian English-language news television channel founded by Raghav Bahl based in Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India. It is currently co-owned by Network18 Group and Warner Bros. Discovery. CNN provides internationa ...

. 6 April 2009. 17:45.

References