Agartala, Oct 16 (IANS) The outlawed All Tripura Tiger Force (ATTF), trained and guided by the Assam-based United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA), had set off the serial blasts in Tripura's capital Oct 1, the police said here Thursday.
Four synchronised and powerful blasts went off at two big market places, a bus stand and a locality in Agartala injuring 100 people, 10 of them critically, on the eve of Eid-ul-Fitr and ahead of the Durga Puja festival.
Subsequently, the police found and defused three more live bombs at different places in the city and its outskirts.
'We have almost closed the 15-day long investigation into the serial blasts and so far have arrested 17 people including the main accused Dinesh Debbarma and the co-accused Bikash Debbarma, both top ATTF cadres,' said Director General of Police Pranay Sahaya.
'We shall seek information from the Assam Police about the ULFA cadres who guided and trained the ATTF guerillas at their Satchari camp in Sylhet district of Bangladesh,' the police chief told newsmen.
Sahaya did not rule out the involvement of Pakistan's Inter-Service Intelligence (ISI) in the bombings.
'To create panic and disturb the harmony in the mixed populated Agartala city, the serial bombs were set-off by the separatists outfits.'
'Ammonium nitrate, fuel oil, mobile phones and 9-volt batteries were used in the explosions,' he added.
Officials from the Intelligence Bureau, the National Security Guards and the Central Forensic Laboratory, Kolkata, with the Tripura police's Criminal Investigation Department (CID) personnel probed the blasts.
'The Border Security Force (BSF) has been put on alert and is keeping a close watch on the Tripura's 856 km-border with Bangladesh,' Sahaya said.
'In view of such types of pre-planned explosions, we are considering to constitute an Anti-Terrorist Squad like the other militancy affected states of India,' the police chief added.
The ATTF along with another militant outfit National Liberation Front of Tripura had been demanding independence for the indigenous tribals and secession of Tripura from India.
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