29 Muslims were killed on Friday in the worst ethnic violence in Assam in two years
Army personnel get down from a boat after search operation in the village Khagrabari where the tribal armed miscreants killed people from the Khagrabari village under Bodoland Territorial Area Districts (BTAD) under Baksa district on Saturday. (
Guwahati: Police on Sunday said they killed two suspected militants and arrested eight forest guards for their alleged involvement in the killings of 29 Muslims in the worst ethnic violence in Assam in two years.
Four suspected militants hurled a grenade and fired at policemen who ambushed them in a dense forest, said police officer Sanjukta Prashar. Police killed two in an exchange of gunfire and two suspects escaped near Tejpur, a town nearly 80 kilometres north of the region where Muslims were attacked on Thursday and Friday, she said.
Police also said they have arrested eight forest guards following complaints by the victims' relatives that they were involved in the brutal killings. The 22 people arrested earlier face charges they either burned homes or provided shelter to militants.
On Sunday, Army soldiers patrolled the curfew-bound districts of Baska and Kokrajhar for a second day to defuse tension.
Relatives have refused to bury 18 victims in Baska unless Assam's chief minister Tarun Gogoi visited them and assured security to thousands of people hit by the ethnic violence.
Wrapped in black polythene sheets and covered by a long white cloth shroud, the bodies have been lying on a road since Saturday, said Rafiqul Islam, an MLA belonging to opposition All India United Democratic front.
State planning minister Prithvi Majhi was meeting with the community leaders and administrators in the area on Sunday to defuse tension and persuade the relatives to bury the victims.
Authorities have said the attackers belonged to a faction of the National Democratic Front of Bodoland, which has been fighting for a separate homeland for the ethnic Bodo people for decades. The rebel group denies it.
The Bodos make 10 per cent of the state's people.
Rights group Amnesty International India said in a statement that authorities in Assam must take action to protect the rights of all communities and bring those responsible for the attacks to justice.
Dozens of militant groups are active in northeast India. Violence between Bodo people and Muslims in 2012 killed as many as 100 people in the same area as the recent attacks.
Tensions have been high in the region since a Bodo MP criticized Muslims for not voting for the Bodo candidate, said Lafikul Islam Ahmed, leader of a Muslim youth organization called the All Bodoland Muslim Students' Union.
( Source : AP )
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