Indian forces called out after ethnic clashes in Assam
IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency
Guwahati, March 29, IRNA -- Federal soldiers were called out Sunday in India`s restive northeastern state of Assam where 34 people were killed in a string of ethnic clashes during the past five days, officials said. "Army soldiers were deployed in several vulnerable areas in eastern Assam`s Karbi Anglong district to prevent fresh attacks by militants on a rival ethnic group," an Assam police spokesman told IRNA. Heavily armed militants belonging to the outlawed Kuki Revolutionary Army (KRA) Wednesday killed 29 people from Karbi tribe in continuing clashes between the Kuki and the Karbi ethnic groups. On Saturday, KRA rebels killed five more Karbis and torched more than a hundred houses. The attacks were among the bloodiest in recent years in Assam, a region wracked by ethnic violence. The KRA is an armed group fighting for carving out a Kuki tribal homeland in the area. The two ethnic groups are engaged in a bloody turf war in ethnically mixed areas of eastern Assam claiming about a hundred lives in the past one year. "There has been no incidents of violence reported Sunday but panic and fear continue to grip the Karbi villagers who are fleeing their homes and taking shelter in relief camps set up by the authorities for fear of fresh attacks," the police official said. An estimated 3,000 Karbi people are now lodged at various relief camps in eastern Assam`s Karbi Anglong district, 320 kilometers from the state`s main city of Guwahati. "The presence of the army columns has instilled some sense of confidence and security among the people and we hope the cycle of violence ends," an army spokesman said. More than 10,000 people have lost their lives in Assam during the past two decades in insurgency. 2160/213 End
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