Six persons were killed at Athiabari near Ramfalbil along National Highway 31 in lower Assam’s Kokrajhar district on Friday night when suspected militants of the National Democratic Front of Boroland (Songbijit) fired indiscriminately at passengers of a bus proceeding from Siliguri in West Bengal to Shillong, the capital of Meghalaya.
Two passengers were critically injured in the attack.
Kokrajhar District Superintendent of Police Sunil Kumar told The Hindu that NDFB (Songbijit) militants asked some passengers to get down and opened fire indiscriminately, killing six of them on the spot.
The injured were rushed to Bongaigaon Civil Hospital.
Police reports said the militants hiding in the Athiabari area waylaid the bus and asked some passengers to get down at 9.30 p.m. They asked the driver to take away other passengers.
The police suspected that the incident could be a retaliation by the NDFB faction for another incident in the day in which an NDFB (Songbijit) militant was killed in an encounter with security forces.
