Former Jharkhand chief minister Arjun Munda has a heated exchange with Assam health minister Hemanta Biswa Sarma during a visit to a Guwahati hospital on Sunday. (Eastern Projections)

Nov. 25: Suspected Ulfa militants triggered a series of blasts that left three persons dead in Assam, two days before the outfit’s “protest day”.

The blasts took place in Tinsukia, Guwahati and Bilasipara of Dhubri district. Fifteen persons were injured.

A car bomb blast on the busy Bengpukhuri Road in Tinsukia town killed two persons and injured 13.

One person died on the spot while a woman, Sabri Sahani, died on the way to hospital.

“Of the injured, seven, including a five-year-old girl, have been referred to Assam Medical College and Hospital in Dibrugarh. The condition of three is serious,” Tinsukia district deputy commissioner K.K. Dwivedi said.

The blast occurred minutes after a youth parked a white Maruti 800 car (AS-01-B-0135) on Bengpukhuri Road at 5.05pm, he said.

In Guwahati, two back-to-back blasts, within a minute of each other, left one person dead and two injured near the Fatasil Ambari Kabarstan at 6.15pm.

The first blast took place near a paan shop and the second near the graveyard entrance.

“One person has been killed in the blast. Ulfa militants are prime suspects,” deputy inspector-general of police G.P. Singh said. The victim is yet to be identified. The injured are Umesh Singh and Kanhaiya Kumar Rai.

Soon after the twin blasts, two militants — Pulak Barman and Horen Basumatary — were arrested. Singh said both had a hand in the city blasts.

There was also a grenade attack on the office-cum-residence of the sub-divisional police officer, Idris Ali, in Bilasipara town under Dhubri district at 6pm. Nobody was hurt.

The police said the blasts might have been triggered for two reasons: to remind people about its protest day on Tuesday and to send a message to the security forces and the state that it was not shaken by the recent string of surrenders, killings and arrests of its cadres and leaders.