November 24, 2003	Monday	Ramazan 28, 1424

GUWAHATI (India), Nov 23: Angry locals killed five more migrants in India’s northeastern state of Assam, including three thrown into a river with their hands and feet tied, taking the death toll to 51 during a week of ethnic violence.

Police said on Sunday at least two other migrants were hacked to death overnight. Since last Monday, local Assamese radicals have looted and attacked migrants from the neighbouring state of Bihar in a conflict sparked by competition for jobs.

Most of the 51 killings have been blamed on the outlawed United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA), a powerful insurgent group fighting for an independent nation of Assam since 1979.

Officials and analysts said that what began as a clash between Assamese and Bihari students, had been hijacked by ULFA to revive its flagging morale.

Three Biharis drowned in the Brahmaputra in the district of Tinsukia, east of the state’s main city of Guwahati, after unidentified men threw them into the fast-flowing river with their hands and feet bound, Khagen Sharma, an inspector general of police, told Reuters.

He said two settlers were hacked to death by unidentified attackers in a remote village in Doomdooma, in Tinsukia, the district worst hit.

The latest attacks came a day after ULFA men riding motorcycles shot and killed eight Biharis working in a brick kiln near Tinsukia town.

The government has called out the army and imposed a curfew in several parts of the state to curb the violence. Thousands of settlers have fled the state and returned home to Bihar.

The violence is believed to have been triggered by an attack on Assamese train travellers in Bihar this month following reports of assaults on Bihari students who came to Assam to do tests for railway jobs.

Assamese students feared Biharis would snatch the prized government jobs. ULFA, in an effort seen to capitalise on the emotive issue, ordered thousands of Biharis to leave the state or face death.—Reuters