Six persons, including three women, were killed and 15 others were seriously injured when militants exploded a powerful bomb using a remote-controlled device at Lilong Bridge near here in Imphal West District of Manipur this morning, official sources said.

The explosion occurred as a passenger bus coming from interior Chandel district crossed the northern side of Lilong at 0500 IST, they said adding splinters of the bomb ripped through the bus killing three persons on the spot while two died on the way to the district hospital.

The toll may go up, sources at the Regional Institute of Medical Science Hospital and the J N District Hospital said.

The bridge and the road leading to it were also partially damaged in the blast, they said. The militants reportedly fled in different directions after the blast, the sources said and added no organisation or group has claimed responsibility for the incident so far.

Condemning the attack, Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singh, who visited the hospitals, said violence would not solve any problem and reiterated the government's policy to hold peace talks with militant outfits.

Tight security measures were being taken following a call for boycott of Independence Day celebrations in the Northeastern states, by nine underground organisations, including the separatist Manipur People's Liberation Front.

Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order) Y Joykumar Singh had earlier said militant outfits were planning to disrupt Independence Day celebrations by planting explosives on roads and firing missiles.

In a separate incident, two crude bombs were found in a Kerala State Transport Corporation bus in Kochi on Wednesday night and were later defused by the special bomb squad, police said on Thursday.

The bombs were made of gunpowder, nails and some highly explosive substance, they said.

The bag containing the bombs was noticed by the conductor of the bus, which was on its way to Kayamkulam from the temple town of Guruvayur.

A bomb disposal squad from state capital Thiruvananthapuram reached Kochi around midnight and succeeded in defusing the bombs around 0330 IST on Thursday, police said.

More reports from Manipur
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