At least 12 people including five separatist rebels and an equal number of government troops were killed in separate clashes in India's north-eastern state of Assam on Monday, news reports said. Heavily armed tribal separatists from the banned Dima Haolam Daoga (Black Widow Group) attacked a convoy of trucks in the North Cachar Hills district 340 kilometres south of state capital Guwahati, the IANS news agency reported.
"The militants fired indiscriminately with automatic weapons from a hilltop and took the convoy by surprise. A security vehicle escorting the convoy bore the brunt of the attack in which five security personnel and two civilians were killed," a local policeman told IANS. Army and police forces have launched a hunt to arrest the militants from the DHD which has been fighting for independent homeland for the Dimasa tribe.
In the early hours of Monday, five separatist rebels were killed in an encounter with the troops in central Sonitpur district, the PTI news agency reported quoting defence sources. After a fierce gunbattle that lasted nearly four hours, three militants from the and National Democratic Front of Bodoland and two from Muslim United Liberation Tigers of Assam were killed at 1 am local time, the report said. Arms and ammunition including pistols, grenades, explosives and detonators were recovered from the slain militants.
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