GUWAHATI, June 11: The Assam Government yesterday placed under suspension four police officers, including Guwahati SP Kuladhar Saikia, for security lapses that led to the abortive bomb attack on Chief Minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta on Sunday.

The Deputy Inspector-General (Central and Western Range), Dilip Kumar Bora, whose jurisdiction covers Guwahati, was shunted out as DIG (Reorganisation).The suspension orders came within three days of the attempt on Mahanta's life. The State Government has already ordered a Commissioner-level one-man inquiry into the incident.

Others facing suspension are Additional SP (Special Branch) Abani Kumar Sharma, Deputy SP (Pandu division) Partha Sarathi Mahanta, and officer in-charge, Jalukbari police station, Dibakar Sharma.

Padma Kanta Das, SP (Special Vigilance Cell), has been posted as the new Guwahati city SP in place of Saikia.

Incidentally, Saikia had earlier been handpicked for the coveted post by Mahanta himself.

Meanwhile, a meeting of all political parties, called by the ruling five-party alliance yesterday, decided on a day-long Assam bandh on June 13 in protest against the attack. The parties resolved to unite people against ``the cult of violence propagated by the militants''.

Leaders of the RCPI, the United Minorities Front, the SUCI, the CPI(ML) and the United Reservation Movement Council of Assam, who attended the meeting, however, refused to support the bandh call.

The surprise absentee at the meeting was the Congress. Party sources later said its leaders were preoccupied with organisational elections.

Those who endorsed the bandh call apart from the AGP were the Communist Party of India (CPI), the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM),

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.