A powerful car bomb exploded just outside Panbazar police station in the heart of Guwahati at around 3.30 am on Sunday sending shivers down the spine of local residents.

Luckily there was no casualty as the explosion occurred in the wee hours when no was nearby.

The bomb was planted in a Maruti 800 car. According to the police, the car was taken to the police station on Saturday by the enforcement team of the traffic police as it was parked on the wrong side of the road in front of a temple in the busy Fancy Bazar area.

Four such cars were brought to the police station for being parked on the wrong side. Respective owners later took three of the cars away after paying the fine to the police, but none came to claim this car. The police then kept the car just outside the police station for the night.

The police suspected involvement of the banned United Liberation Front of Asom that has been triggering blasts in the state and has threatened to disrupt the forthcoming 33rd National Games in Guwahati.

Explosive experts engaged by the police were yet to recover the engine and chassis numbers from the mangled remains of the car. Police informed that the car was laden with RDX explosives equipped with a programmable timer device.

The intensity of the explosion was such that cracks appeared on the walls and windowpanes of the police station and several other buildings in the vicinity. A large number of crows resting atop a tree nearby were charred to death in the impact of the blast.

On January 9 a similar explosion was triggered by ULFA in front of Dispur police station near the state capital complex in Guwahati.

On that occasion the explosives were planted in a brand new motorcycle that was taken by the police from a 'no parking' zone earlier in the day. A couple of persons were injured in that blast that went off late in the evening.

"This is a new technique adopted by ULFA," said a senior city police official. Recently, at least two powerful explosive devices were recovered by the police in the vicinity of the National Games arena.