Indian police defuse powerful bomb, saving 1000 train passengers

Indian security forces defused a powerful bomb planted in a train at the Guwahati railway station, saving 1,000 passengers from serious injury or death, India's Economic Times newspaper reports.

The bomb, kept in a steel container and concealed inside a bag, was fitted with a time device inside coach S5 of the Kanchengunja Express . It was detected by security forces during a routine check just when the train from Bangalore arrived in Guwahati around 5.15 am, the paper said.

"Security forces were conducting a routine search when they found an unattended small but heavy bag and on suspicion they checked and detected the bomb neatly concealed," ET quoted a senior police officer as saying.

Though no one has taken credit for the unsuccessful terrorist strike as yet, police said it was likely that the perpetrators hail from one of several militant separatist groups within Assam that continue to oppose the ongoing peace talks with the Indian government.

Started in the 1970s, the Assamese insurgency involves several different separatist groups, including the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA), Adivasi National Liberation Army, Karbi Longri N.C. Hills Liberation Front (KLNLF) and National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB).

Earlier this year, representatives of ULFA met with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Home Minister P. Chidambaram for informal peace talks that some hope may have laid the groundwork for an end to the decades-long insurgency. Recently, the newly re-elected chief minister of the troubled state said that he would also hold "formal peace talks" with ULFA, perhaps before the end of this month.

Ethnically distinct from the Indians of the northern and central plains who dominate national politics, the Assamese rebels claim that Assam has been both neglected by India's central government and the victim of internal colonization.