By IANS,
Guwahati : Tribal separatists killed five people, including four teenagers, and wounded three more in an attack in Assam, officials here said Thursday.
A police spokesperson said unidentified tribal militants armed with automatic weapons late Wednesday attacked village Semkhor in North Cachar Hills district, about 350 km south of Assam’s main city of Guwahati.
“Heavily armed militants attacked the village killing five people – four children and a woman – and injured three more. The militants opened indiscriminate fire on a group of people resulting in the fatalities,” a police official said.
The injured, a woman and two children, were admitted to a local hospital with multiple bullet injuries.
“The condition of the two children was stated to be critical,” the official said.
The identity of the militants was not immediately known.
“The victims were all from the Dimasa tribe and it appears to be a retaliation to the killing of three Zemi Naga women earlier this week,” the official said.
Ethnic violence in the district – the Dimasa and the Zemi Naga tribes are waging a bitter fratricidal war for territorial supremacy – have claimed up to 50 lives in the past three months and left more than 2,000 people homeless.