November 25, 2007	Sunday	Ziqa’ad 14, 1428

GUWAHATI: The governor of India’s western resort state of Goa escaped an assassination attempt on Saturday by tribal separatists in India’s revolt-hit northeast, officials said.

Governor S.C. Jamir’s 30-vehicle convoy was attacked in his native Nagaland state, about 200 kms from the state capital Kohima, police said.

Two policemen were hurt in the attack that took place when Jamir, a tribal Naga, was returning from his ancestral family home to commercial hub Dimapur.

“The governor’s convoy came under a bomb attack near the village of Changki.

“Except for two security men who sustained minor injuries, there were no casualties,” Mokokchung district official R. Lotha said on telephone.

Jamir, a former chief minister of Nagaland, has survived three earlier assassination bids.

“A total of five explosions took place, all improvised explosive devices, as the convoy negotiated a stretch of the road under construction. The bombs were placed on a drain along the road,” Lotha said.

Police who reached the spot soon afterwards found four more bombs and were defusing them, he said.

“Jamir appeared unruffled by the attack and directed his convoy to keep proceeding. He has since arrived in Dimapur,” Lotha said.

“We have not yet established the identity of the rebel group which may have carried out the attack,” he said.—AFP