Death toll of a rebel massacre in India reached 72 Adivasi tribe members which is the worst violence in months in the ethnically mixed region, ABC News reported on Thursday.
The attacks late Tuesday in Assam state’s Sonitpur and Kokrajhar districts are blamed on a faction of an indigenous Bodo separatist group. The rebels from the Bodo tribe have been targeting other communities they consider outsiders — Adivasis, whose ancestors migrated to Assam more than 100 years ago to work on tea plantations — as well as Muslims, accusing them and the federal government of exploiting the region’s wealth while neglecting the locals.
In the latest attack, the area of Shamukjuli saw some of the worst bloodshed with 26 people killed. Police said many were women and children.
The Adivasis are a mix of Hindus and Christians, and many like Vor were preparing for Christmas when the attack took place.
Bodos make up 10 percent of Assam’s 33 million people and took up arms as long-simmering tensions over land and jobs morphed into the ethnic violence pitting one tribe against another. They are among dozens of rebel groups fighting the government and sometimes each other in seven states in northeast India.