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Assam rebels kill scores on night of brutal attacks in Indian state | Assam rebels kill scores on night of brutal attacks in Indian state |
(about 5 hours later) | |
Violence in the restive Indian state of Assam has killed 68 people, including 12 children, authorities have said, as separatist rebels intensified a long-running campaign in the tea-growing area. | |
Heavily armed militants launched a series of coordinated attacks in rural Assam on Tuesday, pulling villagers from their homes and shooting them at point-blank range, witnesses said. | |
At least 65 people diedin the attacks, while another three were killed when police fired on protesters demanding justice the following day, the chief minister of Assam, Tarun Gogoi, told journalists. | |
“This is one of the most barbaric attacks in recent times with the militants not even sparing infants,” Gogoi told AFP, saying the culprits would not be spared. | |
He said all the victims were from the Adivasi – an umbrella term for India’s indigenous tribes. | |
Assam, which borders Bhutan and Bangladesh, has a long history of often violent land disputes between the indigenous Bodo people, Muslim settlers from Bangladesh and rival tribes in the area. | Assam, which borders Bhutan and Bangladesh, has a long history of often violent land disputes between the indigenous Bodo people, Muslim settlers from Bangladesh and rival tribes in the area. |
Gogoi said about 2,000 Adivasis armed with bows and arrows, machetes and other crude implements entered a local police station carrying the coffins of victims on Wednesday morning. | |
“Police opened fire when the protesters entered the police station and tried to attack,” he said. | |
Police said 12 children were among those killed in the attacks, which they blamed on the outlawed National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB). The group has waged a violent campaign for decades, calling for a separate homeland for the people of the Bodo tribes, which are indigenous to India’s north-east. | Police said 12 children were among those killed in the attacks, which they blamed on the outlawed National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB). The group has waged a violent campaign for decades, calling for a separate homeland for the people of the Bodo tribes, which are indigenous to India’s north-east. |
The group has for decades waged a violent campaign for a separate homeland for the people of the Bodo tribes, which are indigenous to India’s north-east. | |
A curfew has been imposed in sensitive areas and the army is on standby, police Inspector General SN Singh told AFP. | |
India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, condemned the attacks as an “act of cowardice” and said the federal home minister would travel to Assam to assess the situation. | |
It was not clear why the villagers were targeted, but analyst KG Suresh said the attacks were most likely carried out in revenge for a recent government crackdown on militants in the state. | |
“There was resentment among the NDFB over an anti-militancy operation that was carried out recently. The tribals were easy targets,” said Suresh, a senior fellow with the Vivekananda International Foundation thinktank in Delhi. |