More Than 50 Dead In Indian Violence

Second Day Of Attacks In Northeast, Kashmir Claim Dozens Of Lives

(AP)  A second day of bloodshed in India's restive northeast took at least 21 lives Saturday, including 13 migrant workers shot while they slept and eight government employees killed by a land mine explosion.

On Friday, a series of attacks by suspected separatist rebels killed 35 other migrants and wounded at least 19 in Assam state's tea-growing districts of Tinsukia and Dibrugarh, officials said.

The attacks were the worst violence in the region in years and widely seen as an attempt by the insurgents to boost waning support among the impoverished area's indigenous peoples and to force the government to resume peace talks.

Most of the casualties over the two days were poor, Hindi-speaking migrant workers, R.N. Mathur, police chief for Assam, told the Associated Press.

Migrants are frequently attacked by rebels of the United Liberation Front of Asom in an effort to draw national attention to their demands for independence for ethnic Assamese. At least 10,000 people, mostly civilians, have died since the rebellion began in 1979.

The latest violence appeared to have done that. The federal Home Ministry called a high level meeting in New Delhi, the capital, on Saturday, and the country's junior home minister, Sriprakash Jaiswal, planned to visit Assam on Sunday.

But officials insisted the government would not be forced back to the negotiating table.

The deadliest incident was the slaying of 13 workers while they slept before dawn Saturday in Sadiya, a town 370 miles east of Assam's capital, Gauhati, local administrative officer Absar Hazarika said.

Mathur said the 35 workers killed Friday died in a series of attacks in Tinsukia and Dibrugarh. Those districts remain insurgent strongholds despite a decrease in popular support for the rebels the last few years as violence killed locals and migrants alike.

Also on Saturday, a land mine killed five policemen and three government officials returning from supervising a local election in Assam's Karbi Anglong district. Police did not immediately lay blame for the attack.

A bomb also exploded on an express train running from New Delhi to Dibrugarh without causing any injuries, but officials said they were not sure if rebels were involved.

The United Liberation Front of Asom did not claim responsibility for any of the attacks, but rebel leaders don't usually comment on such incidents.

The group has stepped up violence since India's government called off a six-week truce in September and resumed military offensives. A second group, the National Democratic Front of Bodoland, is fighting for autonomy for ethnic Bodo, a tiny minority in Assam's 26 million people.

India's entire northeast is very poor with widespread unemployment, and bitterness toward the central government has spawned dozens of extremist groups in Assam and the region's six other states.