By IRNA
Guwahati, India : Six people were killed in two separate attacks by separatist guerrillas in India’s restive northeast, officials Tuesday said.
A police spokesman said tribal separatists stormed a railway station at Assam state killing four people late Monday.
The incident took place at the Harangajao railway station in southern Assam’s North Cachar Hills district, about 320 km from the state’s main city of Guwahati.
“Rebels barged into the railway station and started firing at random, killing four people, including two railway personnel,” police official A. Das said.
The dead include two hawkers.
A rag-tag militant group named Black Widow claimed responsibility for the attack by telephoning local newspaper offices Tuesday.
The Black Widow is a group formed by breakaway cadres of the rebel Dima Halam Daogah (DHD), an outfit fighting for maximum autonomy for the area’s Dimasa ethnic group, which is in a majority.
The DHD is currently on a ceasefire with the government.
In the past six months, Black Widow rebels have created a reign of terror in North cachar Hills district killing more than a dozen police and paramilitary troopers, killing local politicians and threatening people for ransom.
In neighbouring Manipur, unidentified gunmen shot two women dead at Heirok in Thoubal district late Monday.
“We are yet to ascertain the identity of the killers or the motive behind the attack,” a police official in Imphal, the state capital, said.
There are 19 militant groups active in Manipur with demands ranging from secession to greater autonomy.
More than 20,000 people have lost their lives to insurgency in Assam and Manipur during the past two decades.