Top Story

  Editorial

  Metro

  Kashmir

  Business

  Sports

  Scoop

  Societal

  Health

    Cartoon

GUWAHATI (India): Separatist rebels shot dead two more Hindi-speakers in the northeastern state of Assam, bringing the death toll from a week of ethnic clashes to 50, police said Sunday.

Ethnic Assamese militants opened fire with automatic weapons late Saturday on Hindi-speaking settlers in Haluakhuwa, 530 kilometres (329 miles) east of the state capital Guwahati, killing two and injuring a third, police said. The assailants torched five homes before leaving, Assam's police chief Khagen Sharma said.

Major Attack

In another major attack, police said Saturday 11 Hindi-speaking labourers were gunned down by suspected rebels who attacked two brick kilns in the eastern Tinsukia district.

The violence was triggered November 15 when Assamese activists prevented candidates from the Hindi-speaking state of Bihar from taking recruitment tests in the state for jobs at the state-run railways.

Youth in Bihar Retaliate

Youths in Bihar retaliated by attacking trains to Assam, injuring some 50 people, following which the rebel United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) warned all settlers from India's densely populated Ganges Plain to leave.

Sharma said the attacks Saturday were all believed to have been carried out by the ULFA, which is fighting for a separate homeland in Assam where more than 10,000 people have been killed in insurgency in the past two decades.

Around 40 percent of India's billion-plus people are native Hindi speakers, including most of the country's top political leaders. Assamese militants accuse Hindi-speaking settlers of altering the demographic balance and taking away jobs.

Situation Very Serious

C.P. Thakur, the federal minister for northeastern India's development, visited Assam Saturday and said the ethnic violence had become "a national problem."

"The situation is indeed very serious and we shall not allow it to further escalate," Thakur told reporters. He charged that ULFA, which he said was responsible for most  of the recent killings in Assam, was getting "facilities" in a neighbouring country, but did not identify which one.

Assam borders Bangladesh and Bhutan and Indian officials have alleged in the past that militants cross the porous borders with both countries.

Bangladesh Refutes

Bangladesh denies allowing any anti-India militants to operate from its soil. Bhutan acknowledges a ULFA presence in its isolated south and has warned it is ready to use force to expel the rebels, who have ignored the Buddhist kingdom's threats.

Sharma said there was a "calculated campaign" to cause division among security forces in the state between ethnic Assamese and native Hindi-speakers by spreading false rumours that Assamese police were being killed.

"Such rumours are to be taken seriously as they are spread with the intention of a creating a possible mutiny within the security forces," said Sharma, who is an ethnic Assamese.

While around 1,000 Hindi-speakers have moved to makeshift relief camps because of the attacks, officials said some Assamese had formed vigilante groups to protect settlers.

Houses Set Ablaze

In the town of Titabor, 320 kilometres (200 miles) east of Guwahati, local people were housing all Hindi-speakers made homeless when a mob burned down 20 homes Friday, district official Krishna Gohain said by telephone.

"It is heartening to know the local people are helping the Biharis in their times of woe," Assam's leader, Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi, told a foriegn news agency. "We are appealing for calm and restraint. We want the people to help the security forces and put up a resistance," he said.

In 2000 the ULFA killed up to 150 Hindi-speaking people in a series of attacks.