Guwahati, November 02 2008: The Assam government has urged New Delhi to put pressure on the neighbouring foreign countries of Assam, whose soils were being used to carry out anti-Indian activities.

Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi on Sunday linked the Thursday's serial blasts to some anti-Indian forces in the foreign countries.

"There are foreign hands in the blasts and I have told the Prime Minister on Saturday to put pressure on our neighbouring countries so that their soil is not used to destabilize Assam and the country as whole," said the chief minister.

"No doubt that there are foreign hands behind the Thursday's blasts and so long the foreign soils are used against us it is very difficult to have a total check on similar activities," Gogoi said.

"The centre has already been taking up the issue with the neighbouring countries but I have repeatedly requested the Prime Minister over this," he said.

The chief minister also defended the intelligence agencies and said that there were intelligence inputs that there could be blasts.

"However, the inputs were not 'actionable inputs.

But I agree that we need to improve our intelligence network," he said.

The Thursday's serial blasts in Assam, which were stated to be the biggest ever in recent times had however, forced the state government to think of raising an elite commando force, specifically to handle the investigation of the terrorism and terrorist related incidents.

"We are planning to raise a specialized battalion in the lines of the Greyhounds commandos of the Andhra Pradesh to tackle the problems of terrorism in the state," said Gogoi.

"We are planning to raise the battalion in the lines of the Andhra Pradesh model, which has proved to be very effective," said Gogoi while adding that the modalities for raising the battalion would be completed very soon.

"We have also been planning to put in force some tough laws in the state to tackle the problems.

The state cabinet had already decided to specialized bomb detection squads in the lines of the NSG of the government of India to deal with the bombs, IEDs and other explosives," said the chief minister.

The state government has also decided to strengthen the police force and setting up of a research and analysis wing of the police within the Special Branch of the state police, he said while adding that the government is also planning to institute one Security Advisory Council for the state who can advise the government machinery over these issues.

The chief minister further announced award of Rs 5 lakh for those persons who could give information regarding the Thursday's blasts and the suspects.

The state and central government had earlier announced exgratia payment of Rs 7 lakh each to the family of the deceased persons Rs 1 lakh to the injured persons.

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