Bodo militants claim rail attack

There have been two blasts in as many days

By Subir Bhaumik in Calcutta

A militant group fighting for a separate homeland for the Bodo tribe in the north-eastern Indian state of Assam has claimed responsibility for two recent bomb attacks on railway lines.

The National Democratic Front of Bodoland or NDFB says it will carry out more such attacks in the campaign for an independent Bodo state.

Twelve soldiers died in a blast on a passenger train on Monday.

Another blast on Sunday derailed 12 wagons in a goods train and cut off the rail link between India's mainland and the remote north-eastern states.

The NDFB said in a statement that the Indian security forces were trying to crush the Bodo movement for a separate nation and the Bodo guerrillas had no option but to strike at Indian targets.

Military targeted

It said the NDFB had targeted the military compartment of the passenger train on Monday and were successful in restricting the damage to the carriages in which the soldiers were travelling.

The NDFB statement said the group would boycott Indian independence day celebrations on 15 August - and would resort to attacks to enforce the boycott.

Observers say the NDFB has been under intense pressure from the Indian army for the past few months and its armed units are finding it difficult to launch attacks and raise funds.

It has become even harder as Bhutan has asked the NDFB and the other Assamese rebel group, the United Liberation Front of Assam or ULFA to leave its territory.

Observers say that the rebels have now been trying to turn up the heat on the Indian security forces and the Assam state government by resorting to attacks on soft targets like railways, oil refineries and pipelines and industries.

Last month, the NDFB guerrillas fired mortars aimed at the Bongaigaon oil refinery in western Assam.