Tribal guerrillas went on a rampage overnight, killing at least 16 people in the northeastern Indian state of Assam, officials said here Monday.
Ten others were injured in two separate attacks on Sunday in the oil-rich Indian state bordering Myanmar.
Militants from the United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA) raided a village in Tinsukia district, some 580 kilometers (360 miles) east of the state capital of Guwahati, and killed 11 villagers, including three women.
"A group of six to seven militants descended on the village and asked some of them to line up before gunning them down at point-blank range", Tinsukia administrator Anurag Goyal said by the telephone.
"The militants later set ablaze a cluster of houses before leaving," he added.
Six others were injured in the raid.
Police said ULFA rebels in a similar attack in another village in neighboring Dibrugarh district killed five people and wounded four others on Sunday night.
The ULFA has so far not claimed responsibility for the killings.
The ULFA is fighting for an independent homeland outside the country’s federation. More than 10,000 people have lost their lives to insurgency in Assam during the past two decades.
Indian security forces have cordoned off parts of eastern Assam to catch the militants.
But a police spokesman said the killers had fled into adjoining Arunachal Pradesh state after the attacks.
"The two attacks were carried out by the ULFA as they want to prove they are still a force to be reckoned with", a top police official in Guwahati said.
"The ULFA is under tremendous pressure with more than 2000 of their cadres surrendering before the authorities in the past few months and hence they have decided to strike back," he said -- GUWAHATI (AFP)
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