January 25, 2007	Thursday	Muharram 05, 1428

GUWAHATI, Jan 24: Traders in the Indian state of Assam drew down their shutters early on Wednesday after a wave of attacks that has left 87 dead in three weeks, officials said.

Streets in the main city of Guwahati were deserted after the state government directed traders to shut shops before sunset each day until further notice following three powerful explosions in the city in the past four days.

In the latest violence, four people including a ruling Congress party official, were killed overnight.

Suspected rebels group, the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA), on Tuesday shot dead Chandra Chutia, the leader of a village unit of the Congress party, in Assam’s eastern Dibrugarh district.

“The ULFA rebels fired at Chutia from close range with automatic weapons, killing him on the spot,” a police official in Guwahati said.

The rebels threatened 10 days ago to target Congress workers and leaders if New Delhi did not cease a military offensive against them in the wake of rebel attacks that killed 73 people earlier this month.

In a separate incident, three civilians were shot dead early on Wednesday by paramilitary soldiers who mistook them for rebels, a police official said.

The three young men were riding a motorcycle when they were asked to halt at a security checkpoint at an oil installation but they kept moving, police official B.J. Mahanta in eastern Sibsagar district said.—AFP