Triple bomb blasts in India

At least 20 people are injured in separate blasts in the northeastern Indian city of Guwahati, police say.

At least 20 people were injured today in separate blasts in the northeastern Indian city of Guwahati, police said. Two of the blasts occurred in crowded marketplaces while the third explosion was reported beside a road in Guwahati, the largest city in the troubled state of Assam, officials said. A police spokesman said that none of Assam's multiple ethnic or tribal militant groups had immediately accepted responsibility for the blasts.

NDTV telivision network said explosives attached to bicycles went off one after another. The Press Trust of India said the serial blasts took place as the Indian home minister P Chidamram was on a visit to Guwahati to review security in India's restive northeast. In the past two decades, more than 10,000 people have lost their lives to insurgency in Assam, which is known for its tea, timber and oil reserves.

The latest blasts occurred just over a month after an attack on India's financial hub Mumbai which left 172 people dead, including nine attackers. In October last year 71 people were killed and scores hurt when a series of bombs exploded in towns and cities across Assam. *AFP