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Another bridge blown up in Assam

United Liberation Front of Asom militants blew up a portion of a vital railway bridge and damaged a security patrol engine in Darang district of Assam last night.

Official sources said today that militants detonated a remote-controlled high-powered explosive device which was planted under the bridge between Dhekiajuli and Majbat stations on the North-East Frontier Railway's Rangia-Tezpur metre gauge section.

The security patrol engine was running ahead of 5716 up Samastipur-Tezpur Express when the explosion occurred.

This was the third attack on railway property in Assam in the past few days.

Several militant groups have given a call to boycott the Independence Day celebrations in the North-East. They have also called for a 29-hour bandh from the midnight of August 14.

Passengers of Rajdhani Express had a providential escape a couple of days ago when a portion of a bridge between Kokrajhar and Salakati stations was blown up by militants, snapping rail links between the North-East and the rest of the country.

At least five people were injured when the engine and seven wagons of a goods train, which was moving on the same track a little ahead of the Guwahati-bound Rajdhani Express, jumped rails due to the explosion.

On Saturday, a patrol engine, which was escorting the North-East Express, derailed when militants set off an explosive near Sijni station in Bongaigaon division.

The Assam police recently arrested two Inter-Services Intelligence officials and as many Islamic militants and unearthed a Pakistan-sponsored plan to create independent Islamic states in Jammu and Kashmir and in the North-East.

UNI

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