By Mubasshir Mushtaq
NEW DELHI
A day after suspected separatist militants killed 55 people in the northeast Indian state of Assam, five people protesting the attack were killed in police firing on Wednesday.
According to local media reports, police resorted to firing after the protesters, from the Adivasi ethnic group, clashed with law-enforcement agencies. There have also been reports that the protesters have killed two from Assam's Bodo ethnic group in retaliation.
Adivasis, who are compromised of various ethnic and tribal minorities, originally hail from central India and work in Assam's famous tea gardens.
They took to the streets after they were targeted in killings by the National Democratic Front of Bodoland, an armed group that wants autonomy for the Bodo-speaking people.
The protesters allegedly set fire to house belonging to the Bodo community in the Sonitpur district which, with 13 children and 10 women killed, was the worst hit district in Tuesday's attack.
“Government will not surrender. Both state and federal government will act firmly together,” Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi said in a press conference on Wednesday.
“Priority is to restore peace in the area,” Gogoi said, adding that additional forces have been deployed to prevent escalation.
India's federal government has rushed 5,000 paramilitary forces to the affected districts of Kokrajhar and Sonitpur.
An indefinite curfew has been imposed in Sonitpur and Kokrajhar districts.
The Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday sanctioned compensation of $3250 each to the next of kin of the deceased and $813 to seriously injured persons from the Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund.
Federal home minister Rajnath Singh will visit the affected areas of Assam later on Wednesday afternoon.
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