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Militants Kill Dozens of Muslims in Northeastern India, Police Say
20 Are Held and Curfew Is Imposed After Attacks on Muslims in India
(about 7 hours later)
NEW DELHI — At least 28 Muslims have been killed in three separate attacks on western villages in the northeastern Indian state of Assam, where long-simmering tensions have pitted members of the Bodo tribal group, who are demanding a separate state, against non-Bodo residents, including Muslims.
NEW DELHI — The police said Saturday that they had arrested 20 people suspected of being associated with attacks that left at least 29 Muslims dead in western villages in the northeastern Indian state of Assam, where tensions between members of the Bodo tribal group and non-Bodo residents, including Muslims, have been simmering for years.
At least 17 of those killed in the attacks Thursday and Friday were women, and three were children, according to the police. The first attack was on two separate houses in the Baksa district, where three people were gunned down by militants wielding AK-47s, according to the police in Assam. In the second attack, on houses in the Kokrajhar district, eight were killed and three were injured.
The army has imposed an indefinite curfew in the parts of western Assam where the attacks took place Thursday and Friday.
The third attack, on Friday in Baksa, was the most brutal. According to the police, militants descended on a village bordering a national wildlife sanctuary, set 35 Muslim-owned houses on fire and shot at least 17 people. The police recovered seven bodies on Saturday, many of them burned beyond recognition.
The attacks, according to the police, were carried out in three villages by militants with the National Democratic Front of Bodoland, an armed insurgent group that has been agitating for a separate state for decades.
A.P. Raut, a police official, said the attacks were committed by militants with the National Democratic Front of Bodoland, a group that has been fighting for a separate state for decades. Mr. Raut said many militants lived in camps in the forest outside the villages.
The third attack, on Friday in Baksa, was the most brutal. According to the police, militants descended on an area bordering a national wildlife sanctuary, burned 35 Muslim-owned houses and then opened fire, killing at least 19 people. Of the bodies recovered from the area on Saturday, many were burned beyond recognition.
“There the extremists have the advantage of sneaking in and spraying a few bullets and then melting away,” he said.
The districts of Assam where the violence occurred are part of the Bodoland Territorial Areas District, named after a peace accord in 2003 between Bodo militants and India’s central government after more than a decade of a violent insurgency. Many militants agreed to lay down their weapons in exchange for autonomous status for these districts.
The state government has asked the central government to send at least 1,000 paramilitary troops to the affected areas, to bolster police and army forces already there. The police have declared an indefinite curfew in the two districts.
Bodos now dominate the government overseeing the four districts that make up the area, often called Bodoland. But Bodo ethnic tribes are in the minority, making up less than 30 percent of the population. Many Bodos consider the Muslims, many of whom are of Bengali descent, to be illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.
The villages are in the Bodoland Territorial Autonomous Districts, an area in the westernmost region of the state that was granted autonomous status in 2003 after an insurgency lasting more than a decade. The National Democratic Front for Bodoland still agitates for separate statehood, though Bodos make up less than 30 percent of the population in those districts.
Bodo-Muslim violence swelled in 2012 in Kokrajhar after riots between the communities spread, leaving at least 78 people dead and 300,000 displaced in refugee camps. The various ethnic groups in the districts remain polarized since the violence.
Some have argued that the violence is election-related, as many non-Bodo villagers are accused of having voted for a non-Bodo candidate in India’s multistage general elections, which were held in Kokrajhar on April 24. That candidate, Hira Sarania, said that the violence was a response to the main Bodo party, the Bodo People’s Front, or B.P.F., not getting votes from Muslims.
The police said that an escalation of operations against the National Democratic Front of Bodoland caused it to lash out in retaliation. On Jan. 29, militants from it killed a police official in the Sonitpur district in Assam, according to the independent website South Asian Terrorism Portal.
“B.P.F. chief Hagrama Mohilary is responsible for instigating his cadres to attack non-Bodo villagers, particularly Muslims, because his party has realized it could lose the Kokrajhar seat,” Mr. Sarania said in an interview with The Hindustan Times. Mr. Mohilary, one of the leaders of the Bodo insurgency in Kokrajhar in the past, went into mainstream politics after 2003. He denied Mr. Sarania’s allegation, and the police also denied that the violence was related to the elections.
Some have argued that the violence is related to India’s nationwide, multistage elections, as many non-Bodo villagers are believed to have voted for a non-Bodo candidate in the election in Kokrajhar on April 24. That candidate, Hira Sarania, said that the violence was a response by those angry that the main Bodo party, the Bodo People’s Front, or B.P.F., did not get votes from Muslims.
Bodo-Muslim violence swelled in 2012 in Kokrajhar after riots between the two communities spread, leaving at least 78 people dead and 300,000 displaced in refugee camps. The property rights of Muslims are tightly restricted inside the special districts, even though they constitute the region’s second-largest group, after the Bodos. Many of the Muslims are of Bengali origin and are accused of being illegal immigrants from Bangladesh by Bodos and other Assamese of non-Bengali descent.
“B.P.F. chief Hagrama Mohilary is responsible for instigating his cadres to attack non-Bodo villagers, particularly Muslims, because his party has realized it could lose the Kokrajhar seat,” Mr. Sarania said in an interview with The Hindustan Times.
L. R. Bishnoi, a police official in Kokrajhar, said that the violence was not ethnic in nature, and that the militants have targeted several different groups aside from Muslims in the past.
Mr. Mohilary, one of the leaders of the Bodo insurgency in Kokrajhar in the past, went into mainstream politics after 2003. He denied Mr. Sarania’s allegation, and the police also denied that the violence was related to the elections.
