Assam has been a hotbed of militancy for the security forces for many years At least 13 people have been killed in attacks by separatist rebels on markets and a bus in India’s north-eastern state of Assam.
Police told the BBC that a group of heavily armed guerrillas waylaid the bus and opened fire indiscriminately.
Eight people died on the spot, scores of others were injured.
In another attack on a market in Assam’s Dhekiajhuli region, guerrillas killed five people – four male shopkeepers and a woman.
Police say these attacks – and another on a non-Bodo village in Baksa district – were carried out by the National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB).
They say that one villager was reported killed while two others were injured.
The NDFB has been fighting for an independent Bodo homeland which they want carved out of Assam.
Its chairman Ranjan Daimary was arrested in Bangladesh this year and handed over to stand trial in Assam, where he now faces charges of masterminding serial bomb explosions in October 2008, in which 87 people were killed.
But Mr Daimary’s military wing chief B Sanjiabath is still active with nearly 100 guerrillas.
Analysts say this hardline faction of the NDFB is trying to derail the peace process that Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi wants to initiate with full support of the central government.
The Indian government has appointed an interlocutor – former intelligence bureau chief PC Haldar – to talk to the rebel groups in Assam.
The moderate faction of the NDFB is now in a ceasefire with the Indian security forces and wants to proceed with a peace process which the hard-liners want to derail, analysts say.
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