April 09, 2007	Monday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 20, 1428

GUWAHATI, April 8: A powerful blast killed at least one person in the northeastern city of Guwahati on Sunday just as Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh arrived here to attend a function, police said.

Some 14 others were injured in the explosion that occurred at a crowded railway crossing in Guwahati, the largest city in the insurgency-racked Assam state, a police spokesman said.

He said the blast struck 10 kilometres away from a site where Singh laid the foundation of a new bridge.

Senior police officer Rajan Singh blamed the attack on the region's outlawed United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) guerilla group, which has been campaigning for decades for greater autonomy in Assam state.

Other police officers told the Press Trust of India two rebels transporting a bomb on a motorcycle lost balance and fell, triggering off the explosives which killed the rider and seriously injuring the pillion rider.

Earlier, police officer Singh had said a powerful bomb concealed in a parked motorcycle went off at the rail crossing in Guwahati city.

Three of the roadside victims were taken to hospital in a critical condition, a state government medical department spokesman said. After the attack, premier Singh told supporters at the multi-billion dollar bridge project that development was the key to end militancy in Assam, where millions of graduates are unemployed.

“The state has to also improve a great deal and it needs to have more irrigation and it needs to achieve greater productivity,” Singh said, adding mineral-rich Assam required a larger industrial hub. State officials said on Sunday's bomb attack appeared to be the ULFA's expression of protest at the prime minister's visit to Assam.

“Probably the ULFA wanted to demonstrate its strength by carrying out the blast during the prime minister's visit,” an intelligence official said on condition of anonymity. The rebels last week rejected the Assam government's offer for unconditional talks and warned of stepped-up violence, including using suicide bombers to attack selected targets.

Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi had offered unconditional peace talks with the ULFA, aimed at ending close to three decades of insurgency in the region. — AFP