A major fire broke out at Numaligarh Refinery Ltd (NRL) in Assam's Golaghat district on Saturday. The ULFA (United Liberation Front of Assam) has claimed responsibility for triggering a blast which caused the fire at the hydrogen cracker plant area of the refinery at 6:35 pm.
In an email to PTI, ULFA's central publicity committee member Joy Asom claimed the outfit had carried out the blast with a magnetic time device on the occasion of its raising day on Saturday as part of its continuous armed struggle.
Senior police officials said it was "highly unlikely that it was an act of sabotage" as the fire broke out "in the middle of the plant area and was probably due to a technical fault though the exact cause of the fire is yet to be ascertained".
The ULFA said it had used the same devise earlier in the Duliajan and Guwahati refineries last year.
But these claims, too, were refuted by both police and refinery authorities with inquiries revealing that in both cases the fire was caused due to technical defects.