GAUHATI, India - Three bombs exploded in India's restive northeast Thursday, killing at least five people and wounding 50, about an hour before the nation's top security official arrived in the area.
Senior police official P. Saloi said authorities suspected the militant separatist group the United Liberation Front of Asom was behind the attacks in Gauhati, capital of Assam state. ULFA wants an independent state for the region's ethnic Assamese and is the largest of the northeast's many militant groups.
No group claimed responsibility.
The blasts went off in crowded areas of Gauhati just hours before Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram arrived in the city. One of the bombs detonated beneath an overpass on the road leading from the airport, said Saloi.
Police declined to say whether they thought the blasts were connected to Chidambaram's visit.
He arrived at Gauhati at about 7 p.m. local time, an hour and a half after the bombs exploded. He was in town to review the state's security situation and meet police, military and government officials.
The attack was the first in India since the November siege in Mumbai that left 164 dead.
Chidambaram was named to the post in the wake of the Mumbai attacks, which India has blamed on a Pakistani-based rebel group that has links to the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir.
Home Ministry officials did not return calls for comment.
The attack Thursday was the first in Assam state since a deadly series of blasts in October killed 77 people and wounded hundreds in four towns. It was the worst attack the region had ever seen.
India's northeast is beset by dozens of conflicts. More than 10,000 people have died in separatist violence over the past decade.
The region is home to dozens of separatist groups who 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 the rest of India.
