At least 10 more people have been killed in another attack by suspected Bodo rebels in the Baksa district in Assam, northeastern India, according to media reports, taking the death toll in the last 24 hours from the attacks to 21.
Earlier in the day two separate incidents by suspected members of the outlawed National Democratic Front of Bodoland left 11 unarmed civilians dead.
Likewise late Thursday a group of 20 heavily armed rebels fired indiscriminately in the Tulsibil area of Kokrajhar district killing seven civilians including four women and two children.
An indefinite curfew is now in force in the Baksa and Kokrajhar districts and the Indian Army has been called in to control the escalating violence, English-language news channel Times Now reported.
“Armed cadres belonging to the anti-talks faction of the National Democratic Front of Bodoland barged into two houses of the village and fired indiscriminately, killing three people, including two women,” AP Raut, Assam Additional Police Director General, told the Indo-Asian News Service.
The 21 dead belong to the Assam’s Muslim community raising fears that the violent rampage may be a pre-planned exercise against a large Bengali-speaking population whom some separatists groups view as “illegal” Bangladeshi migrants. However, there has also been speculation that the attacks are the result of recent anti-insurgent operations by Indian forces.
The rebels, an ethnic minority, have been fighting for a separate homeland for the region’s Bodo people against India.
Friday’s killings are the second biggest ethnic attack since 2012 when riots between Bodos and Bengali-speaking Muslims left over 80 people dead and displaced 400,000.
The attacks also came on a day when the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, a U.S. government-body that monitors religious freedom in the world, criticized India for its failure to protect its minority or provide justice to them.
By Mubasshir Mushtaq
englishnews@aa.com.tr
