United Nations: United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan has strongly condemned the loss of life in the series of blasts and firing by militants in Nagaland and neighbouring Assam, saying there was no justification for such acts.

"No cause or grievance can justify such senseless and cruel acts that target innocent civilians," Annan said in a statement yesterday (Oct 2, 2004).

Annan, his spokesman Fred Eckhard said, learnt with "shock and dismay the news of bomb and gunfire attacks that took place in crowded public places in Nagaland and Assam States, which have claimed the lives of a large number of people."

"He expresses his sincere condolences to the victims and their families," Eckhard added.

The attacks came yesterday (Oct 2) as the country was celebrating the 135th birth anniversary of the Father of the Nation, Mahatma Gandhi.

A total of 51 people, including two insurgents were killed and about 150 persons injured in the violent incidents.

Twenty-six people, including women and children, were killed and over a 100 injured in two powerful bomb blasts that rocked the railway station and a nearby market in quick succession in Nagaland's commercial town of Dimapur.

In Assam, militants belonging to banned National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) struck terror firing indiscriminately and hurling grenades in nine districts killing 23 people and wounding over 48.