Bomb attack in Meghalaya, no casualties

Two unidentified militants lobbed a crude bomb near a petrol pump in Meghalaya Saturday but there were no casualties, police said.

However, two vehicles parked near the petrol pump were damaged.

The militants tossed the bomb at the Assam Oil Corporation pump in Hawakhana area near Tura in West Garo Hills district around 6 p.m., a police official said.

"There were no casualties and investigation is on to identify the attackers. We are not ruling out the involvement of militant groups," district police chief Mukesh Kumar Singh told IANS.

Subroto Chakroborthy, the owner of a car damaged in the blast, was on a visit to Tura with his friend Shyamal Biswas from Assam's Bongaigaon district.

"After parking my car on the road, I heard a loud sound some five minutes later. I found that my car and a Maruti 800 parked nearby were damaged," he said.

A witness said it was dark and people were screaming and running helter skelter.

Police chief Singh said the blast was mainly to create fear in the minds of the people.

Though no militant groups claimed responsibility for the blast, intelligence agencies suspected the involvement of a faction of the A'chik National Volunteers Council, a rebel group engaged in a tripartite ceasefire agreement in the region.