Guwahati, Aug 20 : Assam's Director General of Police (DGP) Gyanendra Pratap Singh described the recent bomb threat by the banned militant outfit ULFA-I as an attempt to derail the progress of the state.

Speaking to reporters here on Monday, the DGP said that security personnel have been maintaining law and order in the state quite well for the last few years.

"The state has witnessed progress and development... However, a certain section has been involved to stall the development of Assam and hence they have indulged in planting bombs etc," he added.

"Whenever (such) an incident happens, the Assam Police conduct a thorough investigation and the culprits are punished. This time also, we will catch the people responsible for planting bombs in different locations," the DGP said.

He also appealed to the youths not to get brainwashed by the outlawed group. DGP Singh said, "Most of the time, we have seen that young people are being involved behind planting explosives. I urge them not to get involved in any such unlawful activities."

Meanwhile, a shopping mall in Guwahati was shut down on Monday afternoon by the authorities due to "technical reasons", however, according to sources, police have received intelligence input about the presence of explosives inside the mall.

People were quickly evacuated by the security personnel although there is no confirmation about bombs in the shopping mall.

ULFA-I in a statement on August 15 had claimed that they had planted bombs at 25 locations in Assam and these were supposed to be exploded between 6 a.m. and 12 p.m. on Independence Day. However, due to some technical snag, the plan failed and the bombs did not explode.

The Assam Police later jumped into action and rescued explosives from some locations including Guwahati. An SIT has been formed by the police to look into the whole incident.

/IANS