• Burmese
Thursday, July 17, 2025
No Result
View All Result
NEWSLETTER
The Irrawaddy
26 °c
Yangon
  • Home
  • News
    • Burma
    • Politics
    • World
    • Asia
    • Myanmar’s Crisis & the World
    • Ethnic Issues
    • War Against the Junta
    • Junta Cronies
    • Conflicts In Numbers
    • Junta Watch
    • Fact Check
    • Investigation
    • Myanmar-China Watch
    • Obituaries
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Opinion
    • Commentary
    • Guest Column
    • Analysis
    • Editorial
    • Stories That Shaped Us
    • Letters
  • Junta Watch
  • Ethnic Issues
  • War Against the Junta
  • In Person
    • Interview
    • Profile
  • Books
  • Donation
  • Home
  • News
    • Burma
    • Politics
    • World
    • Asia
    • Myanmar’s Crisis & the World
    • Ethnic Issues
    • War Against the Junta
    • Junta Cronies
    • Conflicts In Numbers
    • Junta Watch
    • Fact Check
    • Investigation
    • Myanmar-China Watch
    • Obituaries
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Opinion
    • Commentary
    • Guest Column
    • Analysis
    • Editorial
    • Stories That Shaped Us
    • Letters
  • Junta Watch
  • Ethnic Issues
  • War Against the Junta
  • In Person
    • Interview
    • Profile
  • Books
  • Donation
No Result
View All Result
The Irrawaddy
No Result
View All Result
Home News Asia

Police Hunt Rebels After Anti-Muslim Violence in Northeast India Kills 31

Wasbir Hussain by Wasbir Hussain
May 5, 2014
in Uncategorized
Reading Time: 3 mins read
0 0
A A
Police Hunt Rebels After Anti-Muslim Violence in Northeast India Kills 31

Villagers from Muslim communities wail upon seeing the body of a woman at a relief camp in Narayanguri village in Baksa district in the northeastern Indian state of Assam May 4

3k
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

GAUHATI, India — Police said Sunday they killed three suspected rebels and arrested eight forest guards for alleged involvement in the killings of 31 Muslims in the worst ethnic violence in India’s remote northeast in two years.

In dense forest near Tejpur, four suspected insurgents hurled a grenade and fired at policemen who ambushed them, said police officer Sanjukta Prashar. Police killed two in an exchange of gunfire and two suspects escaped, she said. The town is nearly 80 kilometers (50 miles) north of the region where Muslims were attacked on Thursday and Friday.

In Udalguri district, police killed a third suspect in an exchange of gunfire and recovered one revolver and one hand grenade from him, said regional police inspector general L.R. Bishnoi. He said police suspect two who fled were on their way to attack a village with a mostly Muslim population.

RelatedPosts

Myanmar Junta’s Power Transfer Looms, but Real Control to Remain With Regime Boss

Myanmar Junta’s Power Transfer Looms, but Real Control to Remain With Regime Boss

July 17, 2025
386
Belarus Universities Teach Myanmar Junta How to Kill: JFM

Belarus Universities Teach Myanmar Junta How to Kill: JFM

July 17, 2025
202
Myanmar Junta’s Recapture of Nawnghkio Shows Strategic Missteps by TNLA

Myanmar Junta’s Recapture of Nawnghkio Shows Strategic Missteps by TNLA

July 17, 2025
431

Police also recovered two bodies floating in a river in Barapeta area, Bishnoi said, raising the death toll in last week’s violence to 31.

Police said they have arrested eight forest guards following complaints by the victims’ relatives that they were involved in the brutal killings. The 22 people arrested earlier face charges they either burned homes or provided shelter to insurgents.

On Sunday, army soldiers patrolled the curfew-bound districts of Baska and Kokrajhar for a second day to defuse tension.

Relatives, who earlier refused to bury 18 victims in Baska unless Assam state’s top elected official visited them, relented and performed the last rites after state Planning Minister Prithvi Majhi met them and assured security to thousands of people hit by the ethnic violence. The wrapped bodies had remained on the road for two days.

Authorities have said the attackers belonged to a faction of the National Democratic Front of Bodoland, which has been fighting for a separate homeland for the ethnic Bodo people for decades. The rebel group denies it.

The Bodos are an indigenous tribe in Assam state, making up 10 percent of the state’s 33 million people.

Rights group Amnesty International India said in a statement that authorities in Assam state must take action to protect the rights of all communities and bring those responsible for the attacks to justice.

The violence comes during India’s multiphase general election, with voting concluding this month. Tensions have been high since a Bodo lawmaker in India’s Parliament criticized Muslims for not voting for the Bodo candidate, said Lafikul Islam Ahmed, leader of a Muslim youth organization called the All Bodoland Muslim Students’ Union.

The country’s multiphase general election concludes May 12, with results for Parliament’s lower house announced on May 16.

Over the weekend, local television reports showed hundreds of Muslim villagers fleeing their homes with belongings on pushcarts or in their hands. Most were headed to nearby Dubri district, which is near the border with Bangladesh. Nearly 400 people have fled so far, Bishnoi said.

Police said that in the third and most recent attack on Friday evening, militants entered a village in the western Baksa district and set at least 40 Muslim homes ablaze before opening fire. Assam’s additional director general of police R.M. Singh said 11 bodies, all of them shot to death, were recovered.

Another seven bodies were recovered Saturday, Bishnoi said.

Police also rescued three children hiding in a forest in Baksa district, he said.

The first attack took place in the same district late Thursday night when at least eight rebels opened fire on villagers sitting in a courtyard. Four people were killed and two were wounded, police said. The second attack happened around midnight in Kokrajhar district when more than 20 armed men, their faces covered with black hoods, broke open the doors of two homes and sprayed bullets inside, killing seven people, witnesses said.

Crying inconsolably, 28-year-old Mohammed Sheikh Ali said his mother, wife and daughter were killed.

“I will curse myself forever because I failed to save them,” Ali said in a telephone interview from a hospital where he was waiting for doctors to complete the autopsies on his family. “I am left all alone in this world. … I want justice.”

In 2012, weekslong violence between Bodo people and Muslims killed as many as 100 people in the same area.

Dozens of rebel groups are active in seven states in northeast India. They demand greater regional autonomy or independent homelands for the indigenous groups they represent.

At least 10,000 people, most of them civilians, have been killed in Assam state in the last three decades.

Your Thoughts …
Wasbir Hussain

Wasbir Hussain

The Associated Press

Similar Picks:

Exodus: Tens of Thousands Flee as Myanmar Junta Troops Face Last Stand in Kokang
Burma

Exodus: Tens of Thousands Flee as Myanmar Junta Troops Face Last Stand in Kokang

by Hein Htoo Zan
November 28, 2023
98.5k

Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army troops are opening roads and pathways through forests for people to flee Kokang’s capital as...

Read moreDetails
Burning Alive in Myanmar: Two Resistance Fighters Executed in Public
Burma

Burning Alive in Myanmar: Two Resistance Fighters Executed in Public

by The Irrawaddy
February 7, 2024
90.4k

People’s Defense Force says junta troops told every household in the village to send one member to witness the double...

Read moreDetails
Another Entire Junta Battalion Raises the White Flag in Myanmar’s Northern Shan State
War Against the Junta

Another Entire Junta Battalion Raises the White Flag in Myanmar’s Northern Shan State

by The Irrawaddy
November 29, 2023
87.1k

Brotherhood Alliance member says it now has complete control of Kokang’s northernmost section after the junta’s Light Infantry Battalion 125...

Read moreDetails
Depleted Myanmar Military Urges Deserters to Return to Barracks
Burma

Depleted Myanmar Military Urges Deserters to Return to Barracks

by The Irrawaddy
December 4, 2023
59k

The junta said deserters would not be punished for minor crimes, highlighting the military’s shortage of troops as resistance offensives...

Read moreDetails
As Myanmar’s Military Stumbles, a Top General’s Dissapearance Fuels Intrigue
Burma

As Myanmar’s Military Stumbles, a Top General’s Dissapearance Fuels Intrigue

by The Irrawaddy
April 19, 2024
47k

The junta’s No. 2 has not been seen in public since April 3, sparking rumors that he was either gravely...

Read moreDetails
Enter the Dragon, Exit the Junta: Myanmar’s Brotherhood Alliance makes Chinese New Year Vow
Burma

Enter the Dragon, Exit the Junta: Myanmar’s Brotherhood Alliance makes Chinese New Year Vow

by The Irrawaddy
February 12, 2024
44.8k

Ethnic armed grouping says it will continue Operation 1027 offensive until goal of ousting the junta is achieved. 

Read moreDetails
Load More
Next Post
Thai Opposition Leader Wants Election Delayed to Allow Reforms

Thai Opposition Leader Wants Election Delayed to Allow Reforms

Passenger Train Derails in India; At Least 19 Dead

No Result
View All Result

Recommended

What the ‘Snake Charmer’ Analogy Gets Wrong About Myanmar

What the ‘Snake Charmer’ Analogy Gets Wrong About Myanmar

2 days ago
1.2k
‘Not a Witch Hunt’: Upholding Survivor-Centered Justice in Myanmar

‘Not a Witch Hunt’: Upholding Survivor-Centered Justice in Myanmar

6 days ago
802

Most Read

  • Indian Army Accused of Deadly Strike on Separatists in Myanmar

    Indian Army Accused of Deadly Strike on Separatists in Myanmar

    shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Rakhine Fighters Close In on Myanmar Junta’s Naval Base

    shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Behind the Scenes: China’s Hand in Myanmar’s Election

    shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Myanmar Junta Recaptures Nawnghkio After Months-Long Counteroffensive

    shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Myanmar Junta’s Recapture of Nawnghkio Shows Strategic Missteps by TNLA

    shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0

Newsletter

Get The Irrawaddy’s latest news, analyses and opinion pieces on Myanmar in your inbox.

Subscribe here for daily updates.

Contents

  • News
  • Politics
  • War Against the Junta
  • Myanmar’s Crisis & the World
  • Conflicts In Numbers
  • Junta Crony
  • Ethnic Issues
  • Asia
  • World
  • Business
  • Economy
  • Election 2020
  • Elections in History
  • Cartoons
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Editorial
  • Commentary
  • Guest Column
  • Analysis
  • Letters
  • In Person
  • Interview
  • Profile
  • Dateline
  • Specials
  • Myanmar Diary
  • Women & Gender
  • Places in History
  • On This Day
  • From the Archive
  • Myanmar & COVID-19
  • Intelligence
  • Myanmar-China Watch
  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
  • Food
  • Fashion & Design
  • Videos
  • Photos
  • Photo Essay
  • Donation

About The Irrawaddy

Founded in 1993 by a group of Myanmar journalists living in exile in Thailand, The Irrawaddy is a leading source of reliable news, information, and analysis on Burma/Myanmar and the Southeast Asian region. From its inception, The Irrawaddy has been an independent news media group, unaffiliated with any political party, organization or government. We believe that media must be free and independent and we strive to preserve press freedom.

  • Copyright
  • Code of Ethics
  • Privacy Policy
  • Team
  • About Us
  • Careers
  • Contact
  • Burmese

© 2023 Irrawaddy Publishing Group. All Rights Reserved

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • Burma
    • Politics
    • World
    • Asia
    • Myanmar’s Crisis & the World
    • Ethnic Issues
    • War Against the Junta
    • Junta Cronies
    • Conflicts In Numbers
    • Junta Watch
    • Fact Check
    • Investigation
    • Myanmar-China Watch
    • Obituaries
  • Politics
  • Opinion
    • Commentary
    • Guest Column
    • Analysis
    • Editorial
    • Stories That Shaped Us
    • Letters
  • Ethnic Issues
  • War Against the Junta
  • In Person
    • Interview
    • Profile
  • Business
    • Economy
    • Business Roundup
  • Books
  • Donation

© 2023 Irrawaddy Publishing Group. All Rights Reserved

This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this website you are giving consent to cookies being used. Visit our Privacy and Cookie Policy.