GUWAHATI, Jan 8: A fresh offer by the Indian government to hold talks with rebels in Assam is unlikely to bring a halt to a wave of ethnic killings in the state, analysts said on Monday.Police have blamed the outlawed United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA), which is fighting for an independent homeland in the state of 26 million people, for the weekend killing of 62 people -- mainly Hindi-speaking migrant workers.

The national government last year held several rounds of negotiations with the ULFA representatives, and on Sunday India’s junior Home Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal offered to hold direct talks with the rebels.

But political analyst Atanu Bhuyan said there was “nothing new in the fresh offer for talks.”

“The ULFA wants the release of five of its jailed leaders before starting talks. If the minister had said something on that line, maybe things would have been different,” he said.

Hours after the minister’s offer, militants killed seven more people near Sivasagar. Two militants were killed nearby in a gunbattle with security forces, police said. “The two militants were probably part of an attack mission when a security patrol challenged them. Both of them were killed in gunbattle,” a police official said.

Experts said targeting the migrants was a calculated rebel ploy to get attention, as the killings of people from the Hindi heartland would have rattled the government.

“Hindi-speaking migrants were targeted as the outfit wanted to make a violent statement (to) New Delhi: either you accept our preconditions for talks or such gruesome attacks continue,” former state police chief Hare Krishna Deka told AFP.

“The ULFA knew that targeting Hindi speakers would draw the attention of New Delhi immediately. They have succeeded with reactions coming in from all quarters,” said Prasanta Jyoti Baruah, editor of the Assam Tribune daily.—AFP