Assam Police have constituted special investigation teams in the districts where “bomb-like devices” were recovered and have announced ₹5 lakh reward for concrete leads, after the proscribed Ulfa (Independent) on Thursday morning revealed about planting explosives at 24 locations in protest against the establishment.

The twin decisions were announced on Friday night, soon after a review of the situation arising out of the revelation and the resultant exhaustive search operations to locate and defuse the bombs at places mentioned by the militant outfit.

The decisions reflect the concern and urgency within the administration to find
the bombs to avoid untoward incidents.

The Ulfa(I), formed in 1979 to secure sovereignty for Assam, is the only militant outfit from the state that has not joined the peace process despite repeated appeals by the government.

Sources said that by planting the bombs, the outfit has sent a message to sections which describe it as a spent force.

The BJP-led state government has been facing flak over the security and intelligence lapses that the Ulfa has exposed by planting bombs at multiple locations amid the tight surveillance for Independence Day.

So far, the police have been able to locate 10 “bomb-like devices”, four of these in the city under Kamrup (Metro) district. The remaining were recovered from Nalbari, Nagaon, Sivasagar and Lakhimpur.

The police said that the SITs will investigate the cases registered in the five districts to identify those involved in planting the bomb-like devices, take action against them as per law and instil confidence in the public about the police’s resolve to ensure order and peace.

According to the Ulfa(I), the bombs were planted at 24 locations spread across Tinsukia, Sivasagar, Dibrugarh, Golaghat, Nagaon, Lakhimpur, Nalbari and Tamulpur, and were to go off between 6am and 12pm, but those did not explode because of “technical” glitches.

The Ulfa(I) chief Paresh Baruah, according to a Guwahati-based news portal, has claimed that the bombs did not explode because “the voltage of the battery the bombs were connected to, went down to 2.3 volts, not enough to trigger a blast”. The bombs were planted 10-12 days ago, Baruah had told the news portal.

In a post on X on Friday night, the state police had sought “public support for information in the ongoing investigation on bomb-like devices planted by Ulfa.”

The post said ₹5 lakh reward will be given for concrete leads “on persons involved in making, transporting, planting of these devices...”

“Share information on Whatsapp Message: + 919132699735 or DM/Inbox on our social media handles — Facebook: www.facebook.com/police.assam; X (Twitter): www.x.com/Assampolice and Instagram: www.instagram.com/assampolice. Identity of the persons sharing information will be kept confidential,” Assam police posted.