Bombs in northeast India kill 35
GUWAHATI, India -- Two bomb blasts in northeastern India Saturday killed 35 people and wounded scores of others.
One large explosion ripped through a train station in Dimapur, where most of the casualties occurred, police said. The other detonated at a nearby market.
Dimapur is the capital of Nagaland state.
Police are on the scene investigating the explosions. Initial suspicions fall on separatist militants.
The bombings were the deadliest attack since a cease-fire with the main Naga separatist group began seven years ago. However police suspect some separatist groups are still operating in the area.
"We are not yet sure who is behind the explosions, but definitely it was aimed at sabotaging the peace process," Janardhan Singh, Dimapur's police superintendent, told Reuters.
The Hong Kong market that sells mainly Chinese goods was open despite a holiday across India to mark the anniversary on Saturday of the birth of independence leader Mahatma Gandhi.
"There are pieces of flesh and torn human limbs lying on the platform. There are people wailing," Yanger Thakkar, a journalist in Dimapur, told Reuters.
"It was a powerful blast, the tin roof of the railway platform has been blown," railway official Robin Kalita said.
Another bomb exploded in the neighboring state of Assam, killing one man.
Also in Assam, police officials said a gunman opened fire on a crowded marketplace in Makri Jhoda, killing 12 people and five were wounded. Police say the gunman ran off.
Police say they are getting reports of more killings in Makri Jhoda and are investigating.
The blasts in Christian-majority Nagaland could have been set off by any of several smaller separatist groups that are not part of the truce with the Indian government, officials said.
The biggest group, the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (Isaac-Muivah), which has fought for a separate Naga nation for more than half a century, has held several rounds of talks with government officials but with no breakthrough.
Police said the blast in Assam was likely the work of Bodo tribals who are fighting for a separate nation. The bomb went off in a market in Kokrajhar district, 150 km (90 miles) west of the state's main city of Guwahati.
India's mountainous northeast is home to dozens of underground groups, some fighting for greater autonomy, or statehood and others for secession. The groups accuse the federal government of plundering the region's rich resources and neglecting the local economy.
CNN's Suhasini Haidar contributed to this report
