GUWAHATI: At least 34 people were killed in a series of attacks by suspected Bodo militants in Assam’s Kokrajhar and Sonitpur districts on Tuesday evening. Unconfirmed reports put the death toll between 50 and 60. The victims were mostly tribals. The 30 people killed in Sonitpur included 13 children and 10 women, the police said.
An unconfirmed report here suggested that there was yet another attack at Moitalu Bosti on the Assam-Arunachal Pradesh border in Sonitpur in which 24 people were massacred. However, there was no official confirmation. The reason behind the confusion in the number of attacks and people killed is due to the remoteness of the places where the attacks were carried out.
The police suspected the involvement of the Sangbijit faction of Bodo extremist group National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) in the attacks.
In New Delhi, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said, “I spoke to Assam CM Tarun Gogoi and Home Minister Rajnath ji. Rajnath ji will travel to Assam and take stock of the situation.”