TURA/ GUWAHATI: An attempt by ULFA militants to assemble an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) went awry when the electrical charge was ignited leading to a massive explosion that killed all three militants in a house close to the Assam border with North Garo Hills District on Friday morning.
The militants were assembling the explosive device in the house of one Manjit Rabha at Mongrai village, near Sualmari, close to Bajengdoba region when the device went off at approximately 8 am.
The blast destroyed the room in which the three militants were assembling the device and panicked villagers fled from the scene to inform the nearest police outpost of Assam located at Kukurkata, on the Bajengdoba-Paikan road.
When police arrived on the scene they found the mutilated bodies of the three militants at the explosion site. Two of the militants were identified as Kanteswar Rabha and Babul Rabha while the third one could not be identified since his face had been badly mutilated in the explosion.
Police did manage to retrieve a live hand grenade and several letter pads of ULFA from inside the damaged room.
With Independence Day near, it is suspected that the militants were planning to conduct subversive activities in the run up to the national celebration on August 15 as has been the practice by the banned militant outfit that shares close ties with the Meghalaya-based Garo outfit GNLA.
Only a week back suspected GNLA militants had detonated a powerful IED on the Tebronggre-Dadenggre road, near Tura, leading to the death of three policemen.
The GNLA is known to have received training in the use of explosives from the ULFA whose cadres frequent the camps of the Garo group.