Three Hindi-speaking workers killed in Assam

Three Hindi-speaking people were killed in Assam by militants, triggering fear and panic among non-Assamese migrant workers, officials said on Monday.

A police spokesman said heavily armed militants late Sunday attacked a brick kiln near the Udalguri tea estate in Dibrugarh district, about 510 km east of Assam's main city of Guwahati. The incident took place around 10.15 pm.

"Four motorcycle borne militants came to the brick kiln, woke up sleeping workers and opened indiscriminate fire using automatic weapons. Three died on the spot, all of them Hindi-speaking workers," a police official told IANS.

Another three people managed to escape. Police have blamed the outlawed United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) for the attack.

Nearly 100 Hindi-speaking migrant workers were killed in a wave of attacks last year in eastern Assam.

In 2000 as well, ULFA militants killed at least 100 Hindi-speaking people in Assam in a series of well-planned raids after the rebel group vowed to free the state of all non-Assamese migrant workers.