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India to hunt down Assam rebels

Intensifies military offensive; urges neighbours, including Bangladesh, to help corner tribal separatists

Agencies
India's army chief yesterday pledged to intensify a military offensive in Assam as it tries to hunt down separatist rebels who killed 83 villagers in the restive northeastern state this week.
India has already deployed 6,000 additional security forces and military helicopters to scour the remote area where armed militants mounted a series of coordinated attacks on tribal villagers on Tuesday.
In five attacks within the space of an hour, Bodo militants dressed in military uniforms dragged out men, women and children from their homes and shot them. 41 were killed in Sonitpur and 42 in Kokrajhar.
An indefinite curfew continues in Kokrajhar and its neighboring areas.
Police have blamed the attacks on the outlawed National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB), which has waged a violent decades-long campaign for an independent homeland for the Bodo.
"We are definitely going to intensify operations," army chief Dalbir Singh Suhag told reporters after meeting Home Minister Rajnath Singh in New Delhi to discuss the security situation in Assam.
Sources said the home minister told army chief that the Centre wants results in Assam and coordination between the army and the state police, reported NDTV. Rajnath described the incident as a 'massacre' and added that there would be a time bound action against terror. He also said the government will not talk to organisations indulging in cold blooded murder.
Meanwhile, India yesterday urged Bhutan and other neighbours including Bangladesh to help track down the separatist rebels.
Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj sought Bhutan's help to trace the militants amid indications that some of them may have fled to neighbouring countries.
Some militants are believed to have fled to Bhutan while their leader was believed to be in Myanmar, officials and police said, prompting calls for cooperation.
"We are determined to hunt down the rebels and destroy their base, both in the country and outside," India's junior home minister Kiren Rijiju told Reuters.
India's northeastern region bor-
ders China, Myanmar, Bhutan, Bangladesh, China, and Nepal, and rebels are believed to often criss-cross the thickly forested, mountainous boundaries.
Assam has a long history of often violent land disputes between the Bodo people, Muslim settlers and rival tribes.
There have been reports of tribal groups armed with machetes and bows and arrows setting fire to houses and shops in Bodo-dominated areas in retaliation for the attacks.
Another three people were killed on Wednesday when police shot at a mob demanding justice over the attacks at a police station.
Over 10,000 people have taken shelter in relief camps since the killings.
Rights groups have in the past accused India's government of not doing enough to tackle violence in the isolated northeastern region, which is home to many marginalised communities.