GUWAHATI, Nov 28: Tribal separatists shot dead 10 people and wounded eight in India’s restive northeastern Assam state, police said on Wednesday. A dozen heavily armed militants belonging to one of the smaller outlawed rebel groups attacked workers at a saw mill late on Tuesday in North Cachar Hills district, they said.

“The militants entered a saw mill and opened indiscriminate gunfire using automatic weapons, killing 10 workers and wounding eight others,” district police chief Dipak Kedia said.The rebels later set ablaze five other saw mills before escaping.

A rebel faction popularly known as the Black Widow, which is fighting for an independent homeland for the Dimasa tribe, claimed responsibility for the killings.

“We have killed 12 people in the area,” said an unidentified rebel leader in a telephone call to a local newspaper office late on Tuesday.

Violence has flared since the weekend in the insurgency-wracked state, with four people killed and more than 300 injured in numerous attacks and clashes.

“A maximum alert has been sounded across Assam in view of the prevailing tension,” Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi said..—AFP