Assam: Another attack claims 14 migrants

Karbi Anglong SP Anurag Tangkha said the attackers, numbering about 20, first set on fire the house belonging to one Dilip Sahu and fired upon the inmates, killing six members of the family. The miscreants also set on fire a rice mill belonging to Sahu.

They then attacked three more houses nearby and killed seven more, taking the toll to 14. Tangkha said the militants used AK-47 and AK-56 rifles and was a combined group like the one that had attacked a cluster of houses at village Ampahar under Howraghat police station on August 8, killing eight people, all migrants from Bihar.

Assam Hill Districts DIG L R Bishnoi said the KLNLF and ULFA had come close in recent months with the former providing the bigger outfit shelter in the Karbi Anglong forests and helping the ULFA regroup its 709 battalion in central Assam. “It has always been a strategy of the ULFA to target Hindi-speaking people to attract attention, especially around Independence Day and Republic Day,” he said.

Police, however, could not ascertain if the militants had made any extortion demand from the families.

Meanwhile, Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi on Saturday visited Ampahar and met survivors of the August 8 attack. He also gave away Rs 10,000 in cash to the next of kin of those killed and announced that Rs 3 lakh would be given as ex-gratia to the family of every deceased. He also reviewed the security arrangement in the hill district.