Guwahati, March 9 :     The residents of Lakhra, on the outskirts of the city, today observed a spontaneous bandh to protest yesterday?s retaliatory strikes on three of their neighbours, all Ulfa activists? family members. The bandh shows popular disapproval towards the bloody game of one-upmanship between the Ulfa and its former cadres the Sulfa. The simultaneous strikes at three locations in the state claimed the lives of six family members of Ulfa extremists. The attack followed six hours after suspected Ulfa militants made abortive attempts on the life of top Sulfa leaders on Sunday night. The sequence of events indicates that gunmen who carried out the assassinations owe allegiance to a common cause ?blood for blood. The identity of the victims suggests that the strikes were carried out single-mindedly for revenge. It is a different matter that the police are avoiding fixing responsibility for the killings, pleading that the gunmen are yet to be identified. The reason for the people?s ire over the Lakhra killings is not far to seek. After all, the victims were innocent and were singled out merely because one of their family members chose to go underground. The spate of killings early yesterday conform to the pattern of attacks and counter-attacks set in August last year, when the Sulfa and the Ulfa began training their guns on each other. The Ulfa, however, has claimed the latest incidents were masterminded bythe police. The game of one-upmanship that reached its peak in December last year ?before resuming on Sunday ?claimed lives on both sides including those of Dimbeshwar Rajkhowa, elder brother of the Ulfa chairman Arabindra Rajkhowa and close relations of its publicity secretary Mithinga Daimary. It now makes a familiar pattern ? if the Ulfa strikes at its former cadres, the latter would retaliate. The police watched helplessly when agitated Sulfa activists openly flaunted their automatic weapons to express anguish over the grenade attack on their colleagues living in the multi-storied building on R.G. Baruah Road. The use of the rocket-propelled grenade was a clear indication that despite stepped up counter-insurgency operations by the Unified Command, the insurgents have been able to enhance their firepower. In the history of Assam?s insurgency, rocket-propelled grenades were used for the second time on Sunday. The RPG announced its arrival in the state in 1995, when a joint team of Ulfa and Bodo rebels used it to destroy the Kaligaon police outpost which was manned by the CRPF and the Assam police. Two CRPF personnel were killed in the RPG blast. Similarly, in December last year, the car bomb announced its arrival in Assam. Sunday night?s RPG blast also proves the total failure of the intelligence agencies. They had no clue whatsoever that the Ulfa was planning such an act. On February 11, a documentary film was shot in front of the building that suffered the RPG attack on Sunday. The shooting could actually have been the rebels? ploy to carry out a reconnaissance of the area. The Doordarshan Kendra, Guwahati, and other documentary producers in the city have confirmed that they had not assigned shootings at any location near the multi-storied building.