ULFA blasts Rs 40-cr oil depot & says it’s just first of a series

ULFA central publicity secretary Mithinga Daimary, who faxed a press note to The Indian Express tonight, said the group has drawn up a series of acts coinciding with the run-up to the Independence Day celebration under the code-name `Abhiyan Dahan.’

“This Operation Dahan will continue till midnight of August 15 and we have instructed our cadres all over Assam to strike accurately and with flawless success,” Daimary, in his two-page press note in Assamese, said.

He claimed that the destruction of the Thekeraguri oilinstallation was carried out “successfully” by the 18th unit of `Operation Dahan.’

The fire broke out after a “massive explosion” at about 4:10 a.m., heard by villagers up to a distance of about 10 km and soon engulfed all the seven tanks of the IOC, which has a storage capacity of 13,000 kilolitres of petrol and diesel. IOC officials in Delhi put the loss at around Rs 18.5 crore (facilities worth Rs 12 crore and petro products worth Rs 6.5 crore).

The depot, which was commissioned in January 1996, is strategically located at the railway and National highway crossing at Thekeraguri, about 30 kms west of the district town of Nagaon, and is easily approachable from the main road.

More than 50 fire tenders rushed to the spot from Nagaon, Jagiroad, Guwahati and Morigaon, and firemen were struggling to control the fire till late Tuesday evening. The heat generated by the massive fire has come in the way of fire-fighters getting close to the burning tanks while there was also a shortage of fire-tendersequipped with foam sprayers except for a few from the Hindustan Paper Corporation, Jagiroad.

The depot, an important installation of the IOC, was guarded by a private security firm from Calcutta and this, despite strict orders from the State Government that such installations be guarded by the Central Industrial Security Force. The depot had only eight guards.

Road and railway traffic between upper and lower Assam has been suspended through Thekeraguiri and diverted through Morigaon, while the nearest Raha police station reported that villagers have fled to safer places for fear of being affected by the fire.

Senior police and administration officers as well as senior IOC officials are camping there to supervise the fire-fighting operation. Explosive experts too have been dispatched to ascertain whether the fire was a result of a bomb explosion or a mere accident.

Today’s incident is the fourth act of sabotage by the ULFA on the state’s oil installations, the previous three being carried out inNovember 1990, to mark the ban on the outfit, November, 1996 and November, 1997.