Gunmen attack civilians in Assam

Unidentified gunmen in Barpeta town of Assam attacked civilians while they were returning home after performing a religious ritual.

The miscreants opened fire at a vehicle carrying nine civilians in Basta area.

Additional Director General of Police, A. P. Rawut, on the basis of the evidence collected so far, alleged the hand of a militant outfit National Democratic Front of Bodoland.

"We have collected evidence and from that we inferred that the group of NDFB (National Democratic Front of Bodoland) may be responsible for the attack," he said.

NDFB is an armed separatist outfit that has been fighting for a separate state of Bodoland to be carved out of Assam for the Bodo tribes.

Amongst the nine, two were men and the rest were women and children. The injured were rushed to nearby civil hospital in Barpeta for medical help.

Post the attack, security was beefed up in the area and indefinite curfew has been imposed in the Bodo Territorial Autonomous District (BTAD) area.

On Friday, Suspected tribal rebels shot dead 22 Muslims in attacks in tea-growing state of Assam, where tension has run high during a drawn-out national election. Police said they suspected militants from the Bodo tribe were behind the latest attacks late on Thursday and Friday in a region, where tension between ethnic Bodo people and Muslim settlers spilled over two years ago into clashes in which dozens were killed and 400,000 fled their homes.