Bloody Separatists Activities

Militant attacks leave 56 dead in India’s northeast

10:58 AM

24

December

2014

Activists of the Assam Tea Tribes Student Association shout slogans as they block the road with burning tyres during a protest against attacks on villagers by militants, at Biswanath Chariali in the Sonitpur district of northeastern Assam state on Wednesday.  At least 56 people including children died in a series of militant attacks in Assam. 

AFP/New Delhi

At least 56 people including children died in a series of militant attacks in Assam, Indian police said on Wednesday, as the rebels dramatically intensified a long-running separatist campaign in the tea-growing state.

Witnesses said armed militants pulled villagers from their homes and shot them at point-blank range in a series of coordinated attacks carried out across the remote and volatile northeastern state on Tuesday.

Assam, which borders Bhutan and Bangladesh, has a long history of often violent land disputes between the indigenousBodo people, Muslim settlers from Bangladesh and rival tribes in the area.

"This is one of the most barbaric attacks in recent times with the militants not even sparing infants," state Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi told AFP, saying the culprits would not be spared.

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 for decades waged a violent campaign for a separate homeland for the people of the Bodo tribes, which are indigenous to India's northeast.

"As of now 56 people are dead and 80 others are injured. At least 20 of them are in critical condition in hospitals," police Inspector General S.N. Singh said.

"Our teams are still trying to reach the remote areas to see if there are more bodies lying in houses or forests."

A curfew has been imposed in sensitive areas and the army is on standby, Singh said.

One villager said the rebels were armed with sophisticated assault rifles and had come on foot.

"I saw my wife and two sons being shot dead before my eyes," said Anil Murmu, a 40-year-old survivor from the worst-hit village of Phulbari, where 30 people were killed.

"I somehow managed to escape by hiding under the bed," he said by phone…

Read more at: http://www.gulf-times.com/India/185/details/420914/Militant-attacks-leave-56-dead-in-India%E2%80%99s-northeast