Fear keeps people home on ULFA day

The state capital was in for an unofficial bandh today with rumour mills managing to keep most people indoors on the 24th foundation day of ...

The state capital was in for an unofficial bandh today with rumour mills managing to keep most people indoors on the 24th foundation day of the banned United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA).

‘‘There was no bandh call by the ULFA that has been considerably weakened over the years. But rumour mongers did succeed in spreading a sense of fear,’’ said a senior Assam police official.

The state government had sounded a red alert on the eve of the foundation day and most people were apprehending trouble, especially in view of the ULFA’s recent mortar and rocket-propelled grenade attacks on vital oil installations in the state.

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Most vehicles stayed off the roads and a large number of schools and business establishments remained closed throughout the day.

It was only on Friday that the ULFA had made an unsuccessful mortar attack on an LPG bottling plant of the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) at Palashbari, about 20 km west of Guwahati. It was the fifth incident of a mortar attack in and around Guwahati in the past six months.

Front-page photographs in local newspapers of security personnel frisking motorcyclists and bus commuters had also contributed towards people preferring to stay indoors today.

There were, however, no reports of any untoward incident from any part of the state till Monday evening, while intelligence sources claimed that several top ULFA leaders could not make it to their general headquarters in southern Bhutan to attend the foundation day ceremony.

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