GAUHATI, May 16: Separatist rebels shot and killed six migrant workers in north-eastern India’s restive Assam state, police officials said on Wednesday.

The rebels armed with automatic weapons descended on Belbari village, sought out the migrant workers and killed five of them, said V.K. Ramisetti, the Dibrugarh district police chief.

The United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA), fighting for an independent homeland since its formation in 1979, called police and local reporters and claimed responsibility for Tuesday night’s killings of the workers, who came from the neighbouring state of Bihar.

Another migrant worker was gunned down in the nearby district of Sivasagar, Ramisetti said.

The killings were similar to a string of ULFA attacks that killed more than 70 migrant workers in January. Belbari, an ULFA stronghold in Dibrugarh district, lies about 550 km east of Gauhati, Assam’s capital.—AP