The anti-government force triggered a powerful bomb aimed at a truck carrying soldiers of India's Central Reserve Para-military Force (CRPF) on the national highway No. 7 near Goalpara, a town at lower Assam, according to the Press Trust of India (PTI).

However, officials in the area said, the IED hit an overcrowded bus which was coming from the opposite direction and crossing the truck, killing three people on the spot and injuring another 58.

Three people, including a CRPF soldier, succumbed later while 10 seriously injured were rushed to a nearby hospital, PTI said.

The ultras escaped into a dense forest immediately after the incident while a massive combing operation was launched by the security forces, the agency added.

This is the second fatal incident claimed to be the work of ULFA since Saturday last week, when the militants blasted an oil depot of the world's oldest oil refinery in the state and attacked a gas pipeline nearby.

Shortly after the explosion at the refinery, ULFA Commander in Chief Paresh Baruah reportedly claimed responsibility for the incident and warned that they were planning similar attacks.

(Xinhua News Agency March 17, 2003)