19 killed in series of bomb blasts in northeastern India

GUWAHATI, India (AFP) - At least 19 people were killed and 55 wounded, many critically, in four powerful bomb blasts in revolt-hit northeastern India, police and officials said.
Eighteen people were killed in three blasts in Nagaland state in the deadliest violence there since New Delhi struck a truce with the state's main separatist group, the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN), in 1997.
A fourth blast in adjoining Assam state left one person dead and wounded five, a police official said.
The violence took place as the nation marked the 135th anniversary of the birth of Mahatma Gandhi, India's apostle of non-violence who led the country's successful drive to independence from British colonial rule in 1947.
"The Nagaland death toll has mounted to 18," the state's chief minister, Neibhiu Rio, told AFP from the commercial hub of Dimapur, where the state's three blasts occurred.
"Two more of the injured have succumbed at hospitals. The toll might go up as a number are battling for their lives," he said.
One of the Nagaland bombs was at a railway station and killed 11 people on the scene, a police spokesman told AFP from Dimapur, 70 kilometres (45 miles) east of state capital Kohima.
The railway platform was packed with passengers waiting to board a train. It was cordoned off by federal troops after the blast.
The two other bombs in Dimapur were in markets and killed five people outright, he said.
Police initially said up to 50 people were wounded in the three Nagaland blasts but later said more could be hurt.
"We are not sure who could be behind the blasts," the police spokesman said.
New Delhi and the NSCN have been holding talks aimed ending more than five decades of insurgency in the mainly farming state.
The attacks were the second major burst of violence in more than two months in India's revolt-infested northeast where some 30 guerrilla groups are battling for greater autonomy or independence.
On August 15 in Assam 15 people were killed, many of them children, and 21 were wounded in an attack on an Independence Day parade.
The United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) claimed responsibility for that attack.
More than 50,000 people have died in India's northeastern states over the past half century in fighting between security forces and rebel groups, who say their cultures and the region's resources are under threat.