Three bombs ripped through crowded markets in India's restive northeast Monday, killing at least seven people and wounding 60 others, police said. Authorities suspected the separatist United Liberation Front of Asom was behind the attacks, which came less than a week after a fatal blast in Gauhati, the capital of Assam state, said senior police official G.P. Singh. The first bomb was likely tied to a motorbike and exploded in a crowded market in Gauhati, killing seven people and wounding at least 56, said senior police official G.M. Srivastava. The blast left several cars on fire amid piles of smoldering wreckage. Hours later, a second blast, this one tied to a bicycle, went off in a market in the town of Dhekiajuli, 210 kilometers north of Gauhati, Srivastava said. At least four people were injured, he said. Srivastava said police had recently received information that the group had been planning a major attack in Guwahati. The blasts occurred on the eve of the 30th anniversary of the founding of the militant group, which has been linked to many acts of terrorism in Assam and usually stages attacks around this time. The United Liberation Front of Asom wants an independent state for ethnic Assamese and is the largest among dozens of militant groups in the region. The separatists accuse the government of exploiting the area's natural resources while doing little for the indigenous people _ most of whom are ethnically closer to Burma and China than to the rest of India. More than 10,000 people have died in separatist violence over the past decade. The March 31 blast in Guwahati left one dead and 13 wounded. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was scheduled to visit Assam Tuesday ahead of national elections that begin later this month.
