Separatist group blamed for deaths of 56 people, including 12 children, dragged from homes and shot at point-blank range

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

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.

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.

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.