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14 killed, 16 wounded in militant attack in India’s Assam state

By Siddhartha Kumar, dpa
Published: August 5, 2016, 5:25pm

NEW DELHI — Militants opened fire in a busy market in northeastern India on Friday killing at least 14 people, among them 13 civilians, and leaving 16 wounded.

The attack took place in the state of Assam. Six rebels shot at shoppers and lobbed grenades in Balajan Tiniali near the town of Kokrajhar, the additional director general of Assam police, LR Bishnoi, said.

“Witnesses said the group came and opened indiscriminate fire. A total of 14 people were killed. This includes 13 civilians and a militant who was killed in firing by security forces,” Bishnoi said in a phone interview.

Police said four to five insurgents were on the run and the security forces had launched search operations. “We have dispatched additional security forces to the nearby jungles to track down the militants,” Bishnoi said.

Police suspect militants from the Bodo ethnic group, fighting in Assam for a separate homeland, of carrying out the attack. A faction of the National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB-Songbijit faction) was behind the attack.

“Several NDFB insurgents had been killed in counter-insurgency offensive in the past months and today’s attack has been clearly carried out with a revenge motive,” Bishnoi said.

Friday’s attack was the worst in Assam since Bodo militants killed nearly 75 Adivasi tribespeople and Muslim settlers in 2014.

Footage on local television channels showed damaged shops and vehicles.

“I saw several heavily armed militants who carried out the attack. We ran for our lives and somehow escaped the scene, else we would have died today,” an eyewitness told broadcaster NDTV.

Two among the injured were in a critical condition and the death toll could rise further.

“Our government is committed to take stern action against the extremists to ensure the protection of civilians,” Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal told reporters in state capital Guwahati.

India’s northeast, which borders China, Myanmar and Bangladesh, is a volatile region where nearly 40 separatist and tribal groups are active in five states.

According to data on the South Asia Terrorism Portal, 8,212 people have been killed in militancy-related incidents in Assam since 1992.

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