GAUHATI, India — Bombs in cars and rickshaws ripped through crowded markets in a coordinated attack Thursday in India’s volatile northeast, killing at least 76 people and wounding more than 300.
The scale and planning behind the 13 blasts surprised authorities, who struggled to determine who was behind the attacks — among the worst in a region plagued by separatism, ethnic violence and Islamic militants.
The largest explosion was near the office of Assam state’s top government official, leaving bodies and charred, mangled cars and motorcycles.
Later, dozens of people angry over the blasts took to the streets of the state capital, Gauhati, stoning vehicles and torching at least two fire engines. Police imposed a curfew and closed roads leading in and out of the area.
Seventy-six people were killed, with more than a dozen dying from their injuries, said Subhash Das, a senior official in the state’s Home Ministry. About 300 people were wounded by the bombs, which went off before noon, he said.
Officials blamed the largest separatist group, the United Liberation Front of Asom, for the blasts. “The needle of suspicion is on ULFA,” said Assam government spokesman Himanta Biswa Sharma.
However, the group has never carried out an attack of this size and complexity, which closely resembles bombings that have rocked other Indian cities this year. Those attacks were blamed on Islamic militants.
Anjan Borehaur, a spokesman for the United Liberation Front of Asom, denied his group had a role in the attacks.
India’s northeast — an isolated region wedged between Bangladesh, Bhutan, China and Myanmar with only a thin corridor connecting it to the rest of India — is beset by dozens of conflicts. More than 10,000 people have died in separatist violence over the past decade.
The region is also home to dozens of separatist groups that 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 India.
U.S. Ambassador David Mulford condemned the latest attack. “I send condolences to the people of India. Americans share their sorrow and outrage at these horrific attacks on innocent people,” he said.
