Guwahati: Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Friday paid tribute to the 88 victims of the October 30 serial blasts in 2008, vowing that the state would never return to the era of violence and bloodshed.Describing the day “one of the darkest chapters in Assam’s history,” the chief minister wrote on X, “I can never forget that fateful day which shook the collective conscience of our nation and remains one of the darkest chapters in Assam’s history.”He added, “We shall never return back to those days and ensure that Assam remains a peaceful and prosperous state in the years to come.”On October 30, 2008, nine coordinated explosions ripped through Guwahati, Kokrajhar, Barpeta Road and Bongaigaon, killing 88 people and injuring more than 500, many maimed for life. The blasts were carried out by the Ranjan Daimary faction of the National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB).The attacks comprised three blasts each in Guwahati and Kokrajhar, two in Barpeta Road and one in Bongaigaon, making it one of the deadliest terror strikes in Assam.A special CBI court convicted 15 people in January 2019, sentencing 10, including NDFB chief Ranjan Daimary, to life imprisonment. Daimary had been arrested in Bangladesh in 2010 and subsequently handed over to India.In September 2022, the Gauhati High Court upheld the life sentences awarded to Daimary and six other convicts, while acquitting four others in the case.
