Guwahati: Investigating agencies on Friday questioned over 20 persons as they probed a possible HuJI-ULFA link behind the deadly serial blasts in
Assam which claimed 77 lives, while curfew was clamped in worst-hit Ganeshguri in Guwahati after protesters went on a rampage.
The scale and planning behind the blasts have led the police to suspect local militants joining hands with terrorist outfits to carry out the coordinated strikes.
A team of NSG experts from New Delhi visited the blast sites at Ganeshguri, the deputy commissioner's office and Fancy Bazaar here to make an on-the-spot assessment of yesterday's terror strikes that left over 450 wounded.
"We are not taking seriously the denial by the United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA-of being responsible for the blasts) because on earlier occasions also they have done so", a top Assam police official said.
The ULFA cadres are being trained by the jehadi militants and there is definitely a link between the two which is being investigated, he said.
While suspecting the hand of the Bangladesh-based Harkat-ul Jehad-e-Islami (HuJI) outfit, police claimed to have got clues that the blasts were carried out by people having local links. Thus the ULFA angle has come in, the official said.
Schools and educational institutions remained closed in Guwahati while a total shut-down was observed in Kokrajhar following a bandh call by VHP and BJP.
The toll in the serial blasts in Assam has risen to 77 with 11 more people succumbing to their injuries overnight.
Principal Secretary (home) and official spokesman Subhas Das said eight people died in Guwahati, which now alone accounts for 41 deaths.
Three others succumbed to their injuries in Barpeta taking the toll there to 15.
The number of deaths in Kokrajhar remained at 21, he said.
In the deadliest terror attacks in Assam, near- simultaneous blasts had ripped through Guwahati, Kokrajhar, Bongaigaon and Barpeta on Thursday, killing 66 people and injuring about 470 others.
The protesters gathered near a flyover - a few metres from the blast site, shouting slogans against the government's alleged failure to provide security to the common people.
Deputy Commissioner Prateek Hajela said the protesters, turned violent and went on a rampage attacking the security personnel deployed in the area.
The police first resorted to lathi charge to disperse the protesters but later fired in the air, Hajela said.
Ganeshguri had witnessed protests soon after the blasts on Thursday with the mob torching a police vehicle, a fire tender and two ambulances.
They had also tried to storm the secretariat carrying two charred bodies in a push cart.
The entry and exit road to the area has been sealed since the blasts and only a few vehicles were plying on the Ganeshguri flyover, which connects the Guwahati-Shillong road.
All shops and commercial establishments have remained closed in the area since morning. Attendance in the offices was also thin. Frequency of public transport operations dropped significantly in the morning hours.
BJP leader L K Advani visited the blast site near the deputy commissioner's office where he faced a group of angry lawyers who shouted slogans 'Advani go back'.
He also visited the Guwahati Medical College Hospital and met the injured in the blast.
All examinations scheduled under the Gauhati University and State Education Board of Assam (SEBA) have been cancelled till further directive.
Opposition Asom Gana Parishad observed a 'Black Day' today with its leaders and cadres sporting black badges.
Lawyers of both High Court and Sessions Court in Guwahati abstained from work and held protests outside the court premises.
Bangladesh-based HuJI militants along with other jehadi outfits are suspected to be behind the explosions. Although ULFA has denied its involvement in the terror attacks, police do not rule out the hand of ULFA behind the serial blasts with help from HuJI or jehadi elements.
Of the six blasts in Guwahati, RDX was used in two of the explosions, chief minister Tarun Gogoi has said, adding a special task force has been set up to unearth the conspiracy behind the blasts.
Assam has witnessed massive ethnic violence since early 1980s and ULFA-sponsored insurgency but this is the first time that a terror attack in the form of serial blasts rocked the state in such a magnitude.
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