January 30, 2007	Tuesday	Muharram 10, 1428

GUWAHATI, Jan 30: Four people including a ruling Congress politician were killed in India's northeastern state of Assam in the latest wave of bombings and shoot-outs, officials said on Monday.

A police spokesman said heavily armed militants, suspected members of the outlawed United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA), attacked Pachmile village in Tinsukia district, 580 kilometres east of Assam's main Guwahati city late on Monday.

“Initial reports say two (Hindi-speaking) migrant workers were killed by militants,” Tinsukia district magistrate Absar Hazarika said. Police and witnesses said the rebels entered a village house and fired indiscriminately, killing the duo.

“The two belonged to the same family. The militants spared their wives,” village headman Ram Surat Shah said.

In a separate attack, suspected rebels shot dead a Congress party leader in eastern Assam's Sivasagar district — the fourth such attack targeting politicians of the ruling party in the state.

Authorities have blamed the attacks on the ULFA, which has been fighting for an independent homeland since 1979.

On Sunday, Indian security forces shot dead an ULFA guerilla in Tinsukia district. A senior police official said he was “believed to be one of the key members involved in the targeted attacks on Hindi-speakers earlier this month.”

At least 10,000 people have died in fighting between government forces and separatists in Assam in the past two decades.

—AFP