NEW DELHI: Armed residents of India’s north- eastern state of Nagaland have burnt down villages in the neighbouring state of Assam, BBC reported. Two villagers were killed when hundreds of Nagaland residents crossed the border and torched four settlements in Geleki, in Sibsagar district. More than 20 villagers have been injured in the attack, police said.

Nagaland claims part of Assam as its own territory, while Assam says some of its land has been occupied by Nagaland. Assam police official DK Pathak told the BBC that nearly 100 houses were set on fire by armed villagers from Nagaland in Geleki early on Thursday.

Many villagers have fled the area of the attacks in panic. Nagaland was created as a separate state by carving the former Naga Hills district out of Assam in 1963 after a rebellion broke out there in 1956.

The separatist National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN) has been demanding integration of all Naga-inhabited territories of Assam, Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh with the state of Nagaland to create a greater Naga state.—APP