Militants kill 7 in northeast India

Suspected Bodo militants killed at least seven people and injured nine in three attacks within 24 hours from Friday night to Saturday in the northeast Indian state of Assam, said local media. A faction of the National Democratic Front of Bodoland group opposed to peace talks killed one barber in Udalguri district in the Bodoland Territorial Areas Districts, while killing a villager in Chirang district Saturday. The militants killed five other civilians in Kokrajhar district Friday night, said Indo-Asian News Service. The victims were all Hindi-speaking people from the states of Bihar and West Bengal. Assam's Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi had asked police to deal with the situation firmly. Some militants in northeast India, where the population is ethnically different from other parts of India, have attacked in the past Hindi-speaking or Urdu-speaking people who migrated from other parts of the country.