From Our Correspondent
Guwahati: Five persons were injured and a vehicle was damaged when unidentified miscreants hurled grenades in front of the Punjab National Bank (PNB) branch at Ganeshguri in the heart of the city on Tuesday evening. Police suspected that the grenades was hurled from a passing vehicle.
The injured were rushed to Guwahati Medical College Hospital. A city police picket is omnipresent just about 50 metres away from the site of grenade blast. Such an incident occurred in the city after a long lull.
The incident occurred about a kilometer away from the entrance to the State Assembly Complex where the budget session is scheduled to begin from March 1 next. The security has been tightened in and around the Assembly complex in view of the forthcoming session.
City Senior Superintendent of Police Apurba Jeevan Baruah, who rushed to the spot immediately after the blast, said the explosion went off at about 4:10 pm.
“Eyewitnesses said the grenade was lobbed from a black Tata Safari that was going towards Ganeshguri.
We are investigating all aspects and it is premature to speculate who is behind it,” he said.
The SSP said the blast looked more like the handiwork of some criminals, though police are not ruling out the involvement of militants in the incident.
A team of NIA officials also rushed to the spot after the blast, while forensic experts collected samples to ascertain the nature of explosive used in the blast.
The number of injured was less as traffic was sparse due to the trade union called general strike on Tuesday. (With inputs from agencies)