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Government had information about ULFA plan, says Gogoi

— Photo: PTI

The blast site at Bhangagarh in Guwahati on Thursday.

Guwahati: Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi on Thursday said the State government had prior information about possible subversive activities by the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) in the city and had stepped up security measures to thwart them.

Mr. Gogoi told reporters after visiting the Bhangagarh blast site and the injured at the Guwahati Medical College and Hospital that he would order a probe as to how the blasts occurred despite intensification of security.

He, however, said the State government was impressing upon the Centre the need for setting up a hub of the National Security Guards here.

Describing Thursday’s blasts as “an act of cowardice,” Mr. Gogoi said despite repeated appeals by the State government to the ULFA to give up violence and return to the mainstream, the outfit was indulging in mindless violence.

The Chief Minister reviewed the situation and counter-insurgency measures at a high-level meeting.

From the hospital, he drove to Raj Bhavan to brief Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram on the serial blasts. Top police and Army officials also rushed to the Raj Bhavan, sources said.

The Union Home Minister is scheduled to review the counter-insurgency measures and the law and order situation at a meeting of the Unified Command on Friday.

Earlier in the day, Mr. Gogoi welcomed the victory of Awami League’s Seikh Hasina and her party in the just-concluded Bangladeshi elections and her victory speech in which she reportedly expressed willingness to root out fundamentalism, terrorism and proposed a joint mechanism with India.

Mr. Gogoi expressed the hope that Ms. Hasina’s new government would take steps against the ULFA, the National Democratic Front of Boroland (NDFB) and all militant groups including the Harkat-ul-Jihadi Islami.

The Chief Minister said he would ask External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee to get the new Bangladeshi government to dismantle the camps of the militants.

Mr. Gogoi said the Bangladesh election results were a lesson to the ULFA as the people rejected the candidates reportedly backed by it.