Separatist militants kill 68 in Assam

GUWAHATI (India), Dec 24 (AFP): Violence in the restive Indian state of Assam had killed 68 people including 12 children, authorities said Wednesday, as separatist rebels dramatically intensified a long-running campaign in the tea-growing area.

Heavily armed militants launched a series of coordinated attacks in rural Assam Tuesday, pulling villagers from their homes and shooting them at point-blank range, witnesses said.

At least 65 people died as a result of the attacks, while another three were killed when police fired on protesters demanding justice the following day, Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi told journalists.

"This is one of the most barbaric attacks in recent times with the militants not even sparing infants," Gogoi told the news agency, saying the culprits would not be spared.

He said all the victims were from the Adivasi-an umbrella term for India's indigenous tribes.

Assam, which borders Bhutan and Bangladesh, has a long history of often violent land disputes between the indigenous Bodo people, Muslim settlers from Bangladesh and rival tribes in the area.

Gogoi said around 2,000 Adivasis armed with bows and arrows, machetes and other crude implements, entered a local police station carrying the coffins of victims Wednesday morning.

"Police opened fire when the protestors entered the police station and tried to attack," he said.

Police said 12 children died in the attacks, which they blamed on the outlawed National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB).