Gogoi reviews security in Assam

Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi reviewed the law and order situation in Assam here Friday even as police seized an improvised explosive device (IED) weighing about five kilograms.

Having cancelled his visit to South Africa, Gogoi met senior police officers in view of rising acts of violence. A security alert is in place across the state in the run up to Independence Day Aug 15.

The IED was found at Mangaldai town. It was diffused by the army's bomb disposal squad, police said.

On Thursday, police in Bongaigaon district recovered a consignment of arms and ammunition including 2,000 cartridges of AK-47 assault rifles and arrested three people.

The weapons were meant for the anti-talk faction of the National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB). Three grenades exploded in the state Tuesday and Wednesday.

Sources in the chief minister's office said Gogoi had asked police officers to intensify police patrolling.

Assam Police has arrested six people, including a cadre of the anti-talk faction of Ulfa, for their alleged involvement in the three bomb blasts in Lakhimpur and Karbi Anglong districts that killed one person and injured several others.

The ULFA cadre, Rose Asom, had reportedly entered Assam a few days back to carry out subversive activities, said Lakhimpur Superintendent of Police P. Bhuyan.

"He hired three others to execute the job of exploding the grenades at Lakhimpur," the officer said.

Two others were arrested from Bokolia in Karbi Anglong, where a grenade went off killing one person Wednesday.