GUWAHATI, Nov 22: At least 15 immigrant settlers were gunned down on Saturday by separatist rebels in India’s troubled northeastern state of Assam, officials said.

The attack followed a two-day lull in Assam after widespread looting and killing of people from neighbouring Bihar state in a conflict triggered by a competition for jobs.

At least 34 settlers had been killed before Saturday’s attack, forcing the state to deploy the army to control the spree of violence that began on Monday.

“Around 8:00am today 15 Bihari labourers working in a brick kiln were shot dead by militants in Bordubi area in Tinsukia district,” B. M. Mazumdar, Assam’s interior secretary, told Reuters. Tinsukia is about 500km east of Guwahati, the state’s main city.

Police blamed the attack on the outlawed United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA), a powerful insurgent group fighting for an independent Assam nation.

“A group of five ULFA rebels came on two motorbikes and opened indiscriminate fire from automatic weapons on a group of 30 to 35 labourers at the brick kiln,” a senior police officer told the news agency.

He said eight victims died on the spot and the rest died on their way to hospital. Sixteen others were wounded in the attack. The ULFA, blamed for most of the killings this week, had ordered Biharis in Assam to leave the state or face death.—Agencies