The Army has been called out and an indefinite curfew imposed in the Bodoland Territorial Area Districts (BTAD) of Kokrajhar and Baksa in Assam after >militants killed 20 persons and injured 10, all Muslim migrants, in three separate attacks on Thursday night and Friday.
Unofficial sources, however, put the death toll at 23. The militants torched over 30 houses in four villages in Baksa.
Shoot-at-sight orders have been issued. The Army took out flag marches.
ADVERTISEMENT
The Assam Police said the National Democratic Front of Boroland (Songbijit) carried out the attacks.
Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi called the attacks a cowardly act. Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde spoke to Mr. Gogoi, and promised to send 10 additional companies of Central paramilitary forces sought by the State government.
On Friday evening, militants attacked Narayanguri village and adjoining areas near the Manas National Park in Baksa, killing nine persons, official sources said.
ADVERTISEMENT
Eleven persons died in two attacks on Thursday night. Around 9 p.m., militants gunned down three persons in Baksa. Around half past midnight, five or six militants descended on a village in Kokrajhar and opened fire indiscriminately, Inspector-General of Police (BTAD) L.R. Bisnoi said. Eight persons — six women and two girls — were killed.
Mr. Bisnoi said the militant group had targeted civilians to avenge the killing of three militants of the outfit in an encounter with a joint team of the police and the Central Reserve Police Force in Sonitpur district on Thursday.
He said the outfit targeted civilians belonging to religious and linguistic minorities when it suffered reverses.