Gunmen Kill 13 In Market In Northeast India

Attackers wearing military uniforms shot dead at
least 13 people and wounded 15 on Friday in a
busy market area in a town in India's restive
north-eastern state of Assam, in an attack blamed
by the authorities on a regional separatist group.
Three or four gunmen fired indiscriminately and
threw hand grenades at the crowded market in
Kokrajhar, a town about 220 kilometres west of
the state's commercial capital
Guwahati, eyewitnesses said.
One assailant was killed and security forces were
in hot pursuit of three or four others in the area.
A senior home ministry official in New Delhi
said preliminary reports indicated the attack was
carried out by separatist militants of the National
Democratic Front of Bodoland (Songbijit).
"Police have launched a hunt to trace insurgents
hiding near the incident spot. It is a militant
attack and we will be sending a team from Delhi
to investigate further," the official said.
Assam, a remote and underdeveloped state in
India's northeast, has suffered from years of
ethnic and tribal insurgencies. Prime Minister
Narendra Modi's nationalist party recently won
power in a state election.
"This attack is intended to destabilize peace in
Assam," said Himanta Biswa Sarma, the state's
finance and health minister. There was no claim
of responsibility for the attack.