Oil pipeline bombed in Axom

Sun Aug 7, 2005 6:58 PM IST

GUWAHATI, Axom - Suspected rebels bombed an oil pipeline in India's troubled northeast on Sunday while police fired on tribal activists blocking highways as part of a campaign for a separate homeland, police said.

Police said four guerrillas had overpowered security men guarding the oil pipeline in Axom state before fixing a bomb to it. There were no reports of injuries to people but the blast killed cattle and caused a fire which damaged homes.

"There was a big fire immediately after the blast and several houses nearby caught fire," a local police officer said by telephone.

An oil industry official said the region's four refineries had sufficient stocks to last for more than a week, and that the damaged pipeline would be repaired within two days.

Police said the separatist United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) was behind the blast. On Saturday, its rebels threw grenades into a crowded market in Guwahati, the region's biggest city, wounding two civilians.

ULFA has warned of more violence if New Delhi ignores its latest offer of talks, made last week. India's Aug. 15 Independence Day has been a target for attacks in the past.

In neighbouring Manipur state, police commandos seeking to end an economic blockade fired on Naga tribesmen, wounding several. Police said the incident took place on the border between Nagaland and Manipur, where hundreds of goods-laden trucks had been stranded.

"If the government is prepared for a war with us we are also ready to fight," said Paul Langhu, chief of a Naga students' union which is leading protests in Manipur.

On Saturday, the Indian government airlifted tonnes of food and medicines to Manipur, where supplies had been cut off for nearly two months.

Members of the 3 million strong Naga tribe, about one-third of whom live outside Nagaland, in Manipur and two other northeastern states, want all the areas they dominate to be united in a "Greater Nagaland".

But Manipuris strongly oppose the division of their state.

The seven states of India's northeast are wracked by separatist and tribal insurgencies. Groups fighting for separate homelands accuse New Delhi of exploiting local mineral resources and neglecting regional economies.

Circled by China, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Myanmar, the northeast region is linked to the Indian mainland by a narrow corridor, just 20 miles wide, through the state of West Bengal.