By IANS
Guwahati : In a renewed attack on non-Assamese, militants gunned down two Hindi-speaking persons Monday in Assam, once again triggering fear and panic among migrant workers.
Two motorcycle-riding militants came to a hotel in Talap town in Tinsukia district, about 570 km from Assam’s main city of Guwahati, around 7.15 p.m. and shot dead the owner and his driver, who were from Bihar, a police spokesperson said.
“The militants shot dead the proprietor of the hotel, Tarun Kundu, and seriously wounded his driver Rambilas Shah, using automatic weapons,” police official A. Das told IANS by telephone.
The driver later succumbed to his injuries at a hospital.
“Both the victims were originally from Bihar but were staying in Assam for quite a long time,” the official said.
The police blamed the outlawed United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) for the attack.
“We have launched a hunt to track down the rebels involved in the attack,” the official said.
The ULFA in January killed about 60 Hindi-speaking people in a wave of similar attacks.
The eastern Karbi Anglong district witnessed a string of brutal attacks before Independence Day with close to 30 Hindi-speaking people killed by rebels of the ULFA in collaboration with Karbi Longri National Liberation Front (KLNLF) militants.
In 2000, ULFA militants killed at least 100 Hindi speaking people in Assam in a series of well-planned raids after the rebel group vowed to free the state of all ‘non-Assamese migrant workers’.