GUWAHATI, Aug 11: Suspected separatists in Assam shot dead 11 people in the latest ethnic attack ahead of India’s Independence Day celebrations, police said on Saturday. In separate incidents, a child was killed and 18 people were injured in two explosions as rebel groups stepped up attacks to protest New Delhi’s rule over the oil, tea and timber-rich state.

Late on Friday, around a dozen heavily-armed militants entered the homes of two families of Hindi-speaking migrant workers and shot them as they slept, police said.

The attack took place in a village around 250 kilometres east of Assam's main city Guwahati, where many of the dead were working as farm labourers.

In a shooting in the same district on Wednesday, eight Hindi-speaking migrants were killed, raising fears that a new wave of attacks could be under way similar to events in January when over 60 labourers were killed.

The police blamed the attacks on two separatist groups, the United Liberation Front of Asom, which has been fighting for an independent homeland since 1979, and the lesser-known Karbi Longri National Liberation Front.—AFP