Source: The Sangai Express / PTI
Tezpur, July 13 2009:
A Colonel-rank Army doctor and a jawan were killed when suspected Bodo militants blew up their vehicle in a powerful IED blast today in Assam's Sonitpur district.
Defence sources said the explosion took place in a dense forest area at Chariduar near Bhalukpung, about 3O kms from here, at around 6.30 am, when the two military personnel were accompanying an ambulance in the army vehicle from here to Tenga in Arunachal Pradesh.
The blast was triggered from a nearby house and under its impact the army vehicle was completely mangled and left a crater four-and-half-feet wide and one-and-half feet deep.
The two bodies were completely charred.
The slain army officer was identified as Colonel SM Perumal, Commanding Officer of 405 field hospital of the army and the jawan as Naik Ashwini Kumar, who was driving the vehicle, the sources said.
The ambulance was however safe, the sources said.
No one claimed responsibility for the attack but militants belonging to a National Democratic Front of Bodoland are suspected to be behind the incident.
The house owner Jibon Basumatary and another person were picked up by the police, while local people fled the area immediately after the blast fearing harassment by the army.