Insurgents blow up oil pipeline in Assam

Guwahati: Insurgents on Sunday blew up an oil pipeline of the world's oldest operating refinery in Assam, officials said.

Insurgents triggered a powerful blast at a pipeline of the state-owned Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) near Makum in Tinsukia district, about 520 km east of Guwahati at 1915 hrs, IST.

"The blast tore apart the pipeline carrying high speed diesel and there has been a massive oil spillage," senior IOC official Wasik Rahman Borbora said over phone from Digboi.

The pipeline transports oil from the world's oldest operating Digboi refinery, established in 1901. Oil experts and fire fighters are on way to the blast site, located in a thickly forested area.

"We have shutdown the pipeline although normal operations at the refinery was on. The immediate task is to repair the pipeline," Borbora said.

Police blamed the outlawed United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) for the blast.

"We understand there is no fire yet although locals in the area were collecting the oil in buckets and drums," said Tinsukia district magistrate Absar Hazarika.

Police Sunday defused a powerful bomb planted between a gas and an oil pipeline close to Makum.

On Saturday, suspected ULFA insurgents blew up a gas pipeline near a tea garden in eastern Assam's Dibrugarh district causing extensive damage.

"There was a big fire in the area soon after the blast and it had led to disruption of natural gas supply to tea gardens and other industrial units. We are repairing the pipeline," a senior official of the Assam Gas Company Limited said.

This is the latest in a string of explosions in Assam in a week. Two powerful blasts Nov 5 killed 15 people and injured 40 others in Guwahati.

Insurgents also killed two paramilitary troopers and wounded others in a landmine explosion Friday.

ULFA had claimed responsibility for the attack on the paramilitary convoy although it denied its involvement in the Guwahati blasts.