GUWAHATI, Aug 11: Five policemen were killed and another wounded on Friday when suspected separatist militants attacked a police convoy in the restive north-eastern Indian state of Assam, an official said.

“The nature of the blast would indicate it is a landmine,” said Absar Hazarika, district magistrate of Assam’s easternmost Tinsukia district.

“In all five policemen were killed and one was wounded.”

A convoy of three vehicles was on a routine patrol near Pangeri village, 550kms east of Assam’s main city Guwahati, when the attack took place, he said.

The district’s police chief was travelling with the convoy but was not wounded, the official said, adding that the militants and police exchanged gunfire after the attack.

Rebels in Assam have increased attacks ahead of India’s independence day celebrations on Aug 15, targeting crude oil pipelines, trains and road and rail bridges as well as federal soldiers.

They have also called a 12-hour general strike on Aug 15.

Thirty rebel armies operate in north-eastern India with demands ranging from secession to greater autonomy in conflicts that have left more than 50,000 people dead since 1947. —AFP