In a renewed attack on Hindi-speaking people in Assam, the Inited Liberation Front of Assam on Friday detonated a car bomb in the heart of Tinsukia, injuring seven persons.

The timed device hidden in a jeep exploded near a wholesale grain market dominated by Hindi-speaking traders on busy Chamber Road, the commercial hub of Tinsukia, the police said.

The injured -- all Hindi-speaking people -- were taken to the Assam Medical College Hospital in nearby Dibrugarh district.

Eyewitnesses said the vehicle with the bomb was driven to the area by a person on Friday morning. Another disaster was averted when the army found a 45-kg improvised explosive device concealed inside an LPG cylinder at Chikajan in Tinsukia district on Thursday night.

The police did not rule out a link between Friday's blast and another explosion in a Food Corporation of India godown in Guwahati on Thursday and the kidnapping of FCI executive director P C Ram by the ULFA on April 17.

Security has been beefed up in upper Assam, the stronghold of ULFA's 28th battalion strike force, which had earlier targeted Hindi-speaking people.

Nearly 100 of them were gunned down by the banned group in January.