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FACTBOX-Main suspects behind blasts in India's Assam
31 Oct 2008 13:39:10 GMT
Source: Reuters
Oct 31 (Reuters) - Eleven bomb blasts in quick succession ripped through the main city of India's troubled northeastern Assam state and three other towns on Thursday, killing 77 people and wounding more than 320, police said.

For the main story please click on [nDEL411826].

For a chronology of some of the major attacks in India in the past three years please click on [nSP134508].

Here are some of the main groups suspected to be behind the attacks:

* ULFA

The United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) is Assam's major separatist group that has been fighting since 1979. It accuses New Delhi of plundering the state's mineral resources and giving back nothing in return. ULFA is often blamed for attacks in Assam, but the group has denied responsibility for the Oct 30 blasts.

* HuJI

Harkat-ul-Jehad al Islami (HuJI) is a Bangladeshi militant Islamist group that has often been suspected of attacks on Indian cities.

HuJI has been linked to ULFA. Assam has a long-simmering conflict between its indigenous population and Bangladeshi immigrants, many of them illegal. Mainly Hindu tribesmen fear being overrun by Muslims, who make up 40 percent of the state.

Indian police say HuJI is also connected to the little-known Indian Mujahideen group, which claimed responsibility for a series of bomb attacks in Indian cities in 2008. HuJI was blamed for the 2004 bombing of a political rally addressed by former prime minister Sheikh Hasina and an attack on Bangladeshi born British High Commissioner Anwar Chowdhury. * Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen

Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen is another Bangladeshi militant Islamist group trying to turn the mainly Muslim country into a sharia state. Members of the group exploded more than 500 bombs across Bangladesh simultaneously in August 2005, killing six people. Some of its top leaders have been hanged but law enforcement agencies say hundreds of militants remain in hiding.

* Lashkar-e-Taiba

Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), a Pakistani militant group which New Delhi says plays a leading role in supporting an insurgency in Indian Kashmir, may not be directly linked with the Assam bombs, but the group has ideological links with HuJI. LeT is also said to train ULFA cadres. New Delhi has accused LeT of involvement in attacks across India in the past. The group, which figures on the U.S. list of terrorist organisations, is officially banned in Pakistan.

But India says it still operates there with impunity after changing its name. Indian police say the outfit is also connected to the Indian Mujahideen, a new group which has claimed responsibility for a slew of attacks in India since last year. (Compiled by Matthias Williams; Editing by Krittivas Mukherjee and Sanjeev Miglani)


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Activists of India's main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) burn an effigy depicting terrorism during a protest in the southern Indian city of Hyderabad October 31, 2008, against Thursday's bomb blasts ...



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