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Indian PM condemns blasts that leave 5 dead

  • Story Highlights
  • Indian police believe United Liberation Front of Asom behind attacks in Assam state
  • Explosions leave at least five dead, more than 50 injured, in attacks
  • ULFA, fighting for autonomy, has been blamed for previous attacks
  • Series of blasts come after Mumbai terror attacks left 160 dead
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NEW DELHI, India (CNN) -- India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has condemned a series of terrorist blasts in the troubled Assam state that police say killed at least five people Thursday.

Singh, whose country is still reeling from the November terror attacks on Mumbai that killed 160, vowed to root out terrorism across India.

One of Thursday's blasts happened shortly before India's Home Minister P. Chidambaram arrived in Assam's capital city, Guwahati, local police said. Fifty others were wounded in the blasts.

Assam's Director General of Police G. M. Srivastava told reporters that he suspects the United Liberation Front of Asom -- a separatist group that has waged a 20-year rebellion demanding more autonomy from the central government -- was behind the attacks.

ULFA was also blamed for a series of explosions that struck crowded areas in Assam in October, killing more than 80 people and wounding hundreds of others. The separatist group denied any wrongdoing in that attack.

The group is also blamed for the deaths of 42 migrant workers in a series of small arms attacks in January 2007 and for bombing an Indian paramilitary forces bus in 2004.

India's government is under increased pressure to clamp down on terrorist groups after gunmen launched the coordinated strike in Mumbai.

CNN's Harmeet Shah Singh and Bharati Naik contributed to this report

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