By IRNA
Guwahati, India : Tribal separatists Friday killed four woodcutters and seriously wounded one more, the latest in a string of attacks in the last two days in India’s restive northeastern state of Assam, officials said.
A police official said the dead bodies were recovered from a thickly wooded area near village Lalangsu in North Cachar Hills district, about 290 km south of Assam’s main city of Guwahati.
“There were five bodies lying in the forest and we found one of them alive but in a very critical condition. He has been shifted to a local hospital,” a senior police official said wishing not to be named.
The five woodcutters were abducted Thursday with police suspecting militants of the Jewel Gorlosa faction of the outlawed Dima Halam Daoga (DHD), popularly known as the Black Widow, to be behind the attack.
The Black Widow is a rebel group fighting for an independent homeland for the Dimasa tribe in the region.
The reason for the killings was not immediately known, the official said.
A splinter faction of the DHD is currently operating a ceasefire with New Delhi and holding peace talks.
Assam is currently witnessing a wave of violence. Five people were killed and four injured Thursday in a powerful explosion on the Rajdhani Express.
Unidentified gunmen late Thursday killed a Bharatiya Janata Party leader, Munindra Singh Lahkar, in the town of Rangiya, 70 km west of Guwahati, police said.