Global

Bomb blast kills 4 in India's Assam ahead of PM visit



    GUWAHATI, India (Reuters) - A powerful bomb blast in a crowded parking area killed four people in India's troubled northeastern state of Assam Monday, only a day before Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was due to visit the region, police said.

    Police suspect the state's main separatist group, the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA), was behind the blast.

    The blast took place in Assam's main city, Guwahati, on the 30th anniversary of the founding of ULFA.

    "Four people were killed in the blast and dozens wounded. Of them three are in critical condition," a senior police officer, who did not want to give his name, told Reuters.

    "The bomb was placed in a parking area on the roadside in front of a restaurant, but we are not sure whether it's a car bomb or it was placed on the footpath."

    Police say the death toll is likely to rise.

    Accusing police of not providing adequate security, hundreds of angry protesters blocked the city's main street, shouting slogans against police.

    Several vehicles caught fire after the blast.

    Political parties have started campaigning in the state ahead of an April-May general election. Manmohan Singh of the ruling Congress party was set to campaign in Assam Tuesday.

    Last week a bomb blast killed one person in Guwahati, close to where Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee had been due to address an election rally. The rally was subsequently cancelled.

    The ULFA is among more than two dozen armed groups in India's northeast which are either fighting for an independent homeland or more political autonomy.

    They accuse New Delhi of plundering the region's mineral and forest resources, neglecting the local economy and giving them back nothing in return.

    (Reporting Biswajyoti Das; Writing by Matthias Williams; Editing by Alistair Scrutton and Sanjeev Miglani)