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Curfew enforced to end killing in India

Soldiers in armored vehicles patrolled India's northeastern Assam state yesterday, enforcing a curfew and with orders to shoot on sight after 55 people died in attacks blamed on separatist militants.

Police blamed the string of attacks, which started on Friday and targeted Hindi-speaking people, on militants of the outlawed United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA), which is fighting for an independent homeland.

"Security forces have fanned out across the region with the army, police, and paramilitary troopers engaged in a systematic anti-insurgency offensive," district magistrate Absar Hazarika said.

The rebels went on a two-day rampage killing 48 people and wounding another 30 in separate raids in the three eastern districts of Tinsukia, Dibrugarh, and Dhemaji targeting Hindi-speaking migrant workers.

Separately, five policemen and two officials were killed by a landmine as they returned from conducting local polls in Karbi Anglong District, some 260km from Assam's main city of Guwahati, police said.

The curfew was clamped across the state late on Saturday, and was expected to be reviewed by security officials later yesterday. Federal troops have the authority to shoot anyone defying the curfew.

Meanwhile, in eastern Assam, authorities formed peace committees involving community leaders to instill confidence among Hindi-speaking minorities.

Most victims were from the eastern state of Bihar and had made Assam their home for decades, doing odd jobs in brick kilns, fishing and construction.

ULFA is one of several separatist groups operating in Assam, a state known for its oil reserves and tea crops but where at least 20,000 people have died in rebel violence since 1979.

In 2000, ULFA militants killed at least 100 Hindi speaking people in a series of well-planned attacks after promising to free the state of all "non-Assamese migrant workers," who they claim take away their jobs.

The outfit has not claimed responsibility for the latest attacks.

No fresh violence was reported yesterday, but the streets were deserted under the curfew.

The latest killings have created panic in the community, with hundreds of migrant workers fleeing their homes in eastern Assam, witnesses said.

"We know people in all modes of vehicles, and [on] trains are leaving, moving to safer areas out of fear," businessman Bimal Tiwari said.

Some residents have demanded more army troops in the state.

"We want the entire area to be handed over to the army as we are really frightened that ULFA militants might come and strike anytime," said Ranbir Yadav, a timber merchant in Tinsukia.

Federal junior home minister Sriprakash Jaiswal, accompanied by top security officials, arrived in the state to assess the situation, an official said.

A security alert was sounded in Bihar state as well, as the administration feared a cycle of retaliatory attacks.
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