GUWAHATI: Separatist Assamese militants killed three migrant workers as they slept at a brick kiln where they worked in the northeast Indian state, police said on Monday.

The attack took place late on Sunday in a tea-growing area in the east of the state, police official B. Baruah said.

The shooting has triggered further fears among scores of non-Assamese migrants in the state after last January’s ethnic violence saw almost 100 such labourers killed in a string of attacks.

Police blamed the United Liberation Front of Asom, a banned group fighting for decades for an independent homeland.

The rebel group has vowed in the past to rid the state of non-Assamese migrant workers.

Ethnic violence centred on competition for jobs appears to be on the rise in India, with thousands of northern migrants to the financial hub of Mumbai fleeing in recent weeks after threats and attacks by local political groups.—AFP