By Mubasshir Mushtaq
NEW DELHI
At least 10 unarmed civilians were killed in two separate attacks by suspected Bodo rebels in indiscriminate firing in two villages of Assam state in India’s northeastern region on Thursday night, Indian media reported.
In the first attack, suspected rebels of the outlawed National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) killed three people in the Baksa area, part of Bodoland District Council (BTC), in the Kokrajhar district of Assam. The rebels, an ethnic minority, have been fighting India demanding a separate homeland for the region’s Bodo people.
“Armed cadres belonging to the anti-talks faction of the National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) barged into two houses of the village and fired indiscriminately, killing three people, including two women,” AP Raut, Assam Additional Police Director General, told Indo-Asian News Service.
The BTC was formed as a “territorial privilege” after armed separatist group Bodoland Liberation Tigers Force (BLTF) surrendered and signed a pact with the Indian state.
The second attack took place late Thursday night in which seven civilians including four women and two children were killed and three people were injured by suspected rebels of NDFB in the Tulsibil area of Kokrajhar district.
The two attacks came days after national election voting concluded in Assam on April 24.
“They (the militants) are just trigger happy people and it is difficult to ascertain any particular cause for their attack,” Raut said.
Some Indian media speculate that the two attacks are a result of recent anti-insurgent operations by Indian forces.
Law enforcement authorities have deployed 10 companies of additional paramilitary forces in the affected areas marred by Thursday violent attack.
Assam witnessed large-scale rioting between Bodos and Bengali-speaking Muslims in 2012, one of the region’s worst ethnic clashes in recent years, which killed over 80 people and displaced 400,000.
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