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23 killed in ethnic clashes, shoot at sight orders in Assam

IRNA

Guwahati, Nov 20, IRNA -- Shoot-at-sight orders were issued and an 
indefinite curfew clamped down while at least eight more people 
were killed Wednesday in India`s troubled northeastern state of Assam 
taking the toll to 23 in continuing ethnic clashes between local 
Assamese and Hindi-speaking settlers, officials said. 
A police spokesman said heavily armed militants belonging to 
the outlawed United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) attacked a 
residential area in western Assam`s Bongaigaon district, 220 
kilometers from state capital Guwahati. The incident took place 
around 5:30 P.M. in which four women were killed and seven seriously 
wounded. 
"The militants came on motorcycles and sprayed bullets on a 
group of people waiting near a shop," a police official said. 
"Curfew was imposed in eastern Assam`s Tinsukia district 
Wednesday afternoon after armed mobs belonging to both communities 
clashed on the streets," a police official said. 
"At least a dozen people were injured in the clashes. Police 
opened gunfire to disperse the mob," the official said. 
"All the victims were Hindi-speaking people." Three more bodies 
were recovered from various places during the day, while a Hindi- 
speaking person died when police opened fire to disperse mobs of both 
communities clashing in eastern Assam`s Tinsukia district. 
Thirteen persons, including six members of a family, were killed 
in attacks by armed ULFA militants and angry mobs in separate 
incidents in Assam since Tuesday night. Two people had already died 
last week in violence between the two groups, triggered after Assamese
youths prevented candidates from Bihar from taking recruitment tests 
for jobs at the state-run railways. 
Groups of Bihari youth retaliated by attacking trains bound for 
Assam, injuring 50 people. 
"More than 500 houses belonging to Biharis residing in Assam were 
torched by mobs and militants across the state," the official said. 
Federal soldiers were called out across the state to quell the 
ethnic violence. 
"We have made at least 500 arrests in the past three days in 
different places found indulging in arson and other attacks," Assam 
chief minister Tarun Gogoi told IRNA. 
In 2000, the ULFA militant group killed up to 150 Hindi-speaking 
people in a series of attacks. 
/213 
End