Train Explosion in Assam Kills Three

At least three people were killed and 30 others wounded – six of them seriously -- by a powerful explosion, which according to police officials, rang through a carriage of an inter-city passenger train parked at the Diphu railway station some 300 km east of Guwahati, the capital of the north eastern state of Assam, on Tuesday.

Having set off from Guwahati, the train was headed for Tinsukhia, when the blast occurred in the Karbi Anglong district.

"The train was parked at the Diphu railway station when a powerful explosion went off inside one of the crowded coaches," a railway official said by telephone requesting not to be named.

One person died on the spot and two succummbed to their injuries at a local hospital, say media reports attributing the information to an unnamed police official.

The condition of at least six of the wounded is stated to be critical.

"The explosion ripped apart the carriage with people tossed in the air after the blast," Vishal Kumar, a witness who was at the railway station waiting to board another train to Guwahati, was quoted as saying over the telephone by PTI.

No militant group has claimed responsibility for the explosion.

"We are yet to ascertain who could be behind the explosion," the police official said.

The outlawed Karbi Longri National Liberation Front (KLNLF), a rebel group fighting for an independent homeland for the majority Karbi tribe in the area, is one of the powerful outfits in the region where the explosion took place.

The KLNLF Tuesday launched an economic blockade in the region to pressurise the government to hold peace talks.

"We are looking into the KLNLF's role for the train attack," the police spokesman said.

The bombing comes close on the heels of deadly serial explosions that rocked Assam on Oct 30, killing 95 people and injuring over 300.