Death toll hits 43 in NE India attacks on Muslims

NARAYANGURI, May 7 (AFP): Indian police discovered five more bodies of women and children Wednesday after a "barbaric" rampage by tribal separatists targeting Muslims in northeast Assam, taking the total number killed to 43, officials said.
The bodies were found as authorities continued their search of two districts in the remote tea-growing state where masked gunmen last week shot dead Muslim villagers including babies as they slept.
Police have accused tribal Bodo rebels of killing the Muslims whose migrant community has been locked for years in land disputes with the indigenous group in the state that borders Bhutan and Bangladesh.
Local media have reported that Bodos attacked the Muslims as punishment for failing to vote for their candidate last month in the country's mammoth, staggered election that is drawing to a close.
"So far the death toll is put at 43. The killings were indeed barbaric with even five-month-old baby not spared," Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi told reporters from the worst-hit Narayanguri village.
"It is unfortunate that bodies are still being recovered and we have reports that 11 more people are missing," Gogoi said.