October 30 Serial Blasts: Assam Still Mourns the Dead, 11 Years On

By: Rana Pratap Saikia

It was October 30, 2008, when blasts ripped through western Assam, killing 81 helpless citizens, and maiming 470 others. The Ranjan Daimary-led faction of the NDFB-orchestrated serial blasts rocked Ganeshguri, Panbazaar, Kachari in Guwahati as, well as Barpeta, Kokrajhar and Bongaigaon. That day left a collective scar on the psyche of Assam.

I still remember hearing the series of blasts going off from my residence in Guwahati. You just could not miss it; the warning was loud an clear! Perhaps as a student studying in the 10th standard, the significance of the attack eluded me, and I would only truly understand that those blasts signified hatred many years later.

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I still remember receiving calls from panicked friends from school that day (I had been forced to stay at home with a flu). Life in Guwahati that day was thrown in disarray, with people frantically dialling their loved ones, to see if they were okay. 72 people died that day in Guwahati, and their deaths are still mourned to this day.

If you asked me then why civilians, including women and children, were dying, I would give a mere shrug. Growing up in an insurgency-infested Assam in those days, you tended to be desensitized to mass killings and explosions. In those days when the ULFA was on its last wings, and the NDFB was gaining in prominence, you were likely to think twice before venturing forth from your house on Independence Day. Like ISIS-controlled Syria, Assam was a warzone back then, and bombings used to take place on a frequent basis. Perhaps that is why their heinous act of 2008 flew below the radar. But, the implications of that horror can be felt now, in retrospect.

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72 casualties were reported in Guwahati city alone. Reports indicated that as many as eighteen bombs went off, causing at least 81 deaths and 470 injuries. Hearts of the Assamese still shudder while thinking about those blasts, and it is reasonable to suggest that perhaps those scars will never truly fully heal.

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