Five people were injured in a blast, allegedly triggered by Ulfa militants, at a Jalpaiguri village near the Bengal-Assam border on 20 february. Police said the separatist outfit had used an improvised explosive device, which was planted on a bicycle in front of the tax office at Barovisha village in Jalpaiguri. It blew up around midday, leaving five civilians — Satyen Das (44), Mahendra Das (65), Jogendra Das (52), Ratan Das (35) and Paritosh Shil (35) — injured.
Though there were no fatalities, police are worried as the blast indicates Ulfa is active in the area. This is not the first such incident in Barovisha. In October 2006, two blasts had ripped apart the hamlet.
Being close to the border, the village has been used as a transit point — and at times, a safe haven — by militants. Before the 2003 flushout operation in Bhutan, Ulfa militants used the place as a safe passage to their camps in the Bhutan hills. Later, it was a KLO hotbed. Businessmen in Barovisha were reportedly forced to pay ransom to these outfits.
Intelligence agencies suspect that militants are regrouping after a lull since the 2003 crackdown. The blast indicates they are planning to create disturbances in border areas