More than 2,000 people have fled their homes in the restive Indian state of Assam after separatist rebels killed dozens of villagers, some of them children, an official said yesterday. Residents sought shelter in makeshift camps set up by the state government following a series of coordinated attacks by armed rebels Tuesday that left at least 69 people dead, 18 of them children. Another three peop
le were killed on Wednesday when police shot at villagers who went to a police station to demand justice over the attacks. In worst-affected Sonitpur district, six more bodies were recovered yesterday morning from Maitalu Basti under Zinzia police station bordering Arunachal Pradesh taking the overall toll to 78, a police spokesman told PTI. "More than 2,000 villagers have sought shelter in relief camps. People are of course scared and worried about violence flaring up again," a state welfare official told AFP on condition of anonymity, reports AFP. Fresh incidents of violence have been reported yesterday morning from Gossaigaon area in Kokrajhar where several houses of Bodos have been set ablaze despite the indefinite curfew clamped in the entire district. Curfew has been also imposed in the affected areas of Sonitpur and Chirang districts along with parts of Dhubri and Baksa districts as precautionary measure. Advertisement Police blamed Tuesday's attacks on the outlawed National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB), which has waged a violent decades-long campaign for an independent homeland for the Bodo. Rights groups have in the past accused India's government of not doing enough to tackle violence in the country's remote northeast, which is home to many marginalised communities. But Home Minister Rajnath Singh said authorities would be "tough" on those behind the latest killings, which he called "an act of terror". "We have a zero tolerance policy against terrorism. And we have decided that those who carry out such massacres will face the same tough treatment that terrorists do," he told reporters in Guwahati, the largest city in the state. Rajnath Singh accompanied by his deputy Kiren Rijiju yesterday visited Bishwanath Chariali in Sonitpur district to review the prevailing situation and also held talks with different political and social organisations. They had reached Guwahati on Wednesday night and held meeting with Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi.
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