Guwahati, March 15: Three bombers of the outlawed United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) and a policeman were killed in a gunfight Tuesday in Assam, a day after the outfit triggered a powerful explosion at the ruling Congress headquarters, injuring five party workers.
A police spokesperson said the gun battle took place at Tongna village in the eastern district of Tinsukia, about 550 km from Assams main city of Guwahati.
Based on specific inputs about the presence of a group of ULFA militants in the area, a police team raided the village and a fierce gun battle took place, a police officer said.
Some seven to eight heavily armed ULFA rebels were hiding inside a village house when the police began a combing operation.
The militants opened indiscriminate firing from automatic weapons, killing a sub-inspector on the spot, the officer said.
In retaliatory attacks, three ULFA militants were gunned down and hunt was on to track down the remaining rebels who fled after being outnumbered by the security forces. The gunfight lasted for close to two hours.
It came less than 24 hours after the ULFA bombed the Congress party headquarters in Guwahati Monday night.
There was yet another attack Monday night in the western Kokrajhar district with tribal separatists of the anti-talk faction of the outlawed National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) killing nine Border Security Force troopers and injuring four.
The ULFA and the NDFB in separate statements claimed responsibility for the attacks.
Meanwhile, high alert was sounded Tuesday with the state bound for elections April 4-11 to elect a 126-member legislature.
A state of high alert was sounded across Assam with police, army, and paramilitary troopers deployed in strength to foil any further militants attacks. We would be dealing with the militants with a very firm hand with tough measures ordered, Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi said.
Army and paramilitary columns have already started a massive anti-insurgency operation in militant-affected areas in Assam, even as there were intelligence reports of more rebel strikes in the run up to the assembly elections in Assam.
The militants might try to strike, especially targeting politicians, to make their presence felt, a police officer said.
The anti-talks faction of the ULFA last month in an e-mailed statement threatened to attack Congress leaders and warned people against participating in party rallies in the run up to the assembly elections.
Gogoi said the Congress would never be cowed down by threats by ULFA hardliners.
Threats to our leaders and workers by the ULFA is nothing new and let me make it very clear that we shall never be cowed down by such threats of attacks on our lives, the chief minister told reporters.
The ULFA is fighting for an independent homeland outside the Indian union.
More than 10,000 people have lost their lives due to insurgency in Assam during the past two decades.
——-Agencies