GUWAHATI, India, Dec. 31 -- Suspected tribal militants have shot and killed at least 13 people and wounded three others in India's strife-torn northeastern state of Assam. Police officials say that guerrillas affiliated with an outlawed Bodo tribal group shot down the sleeping villagers on Tuesday night in Nishimari village of Darrang district.
The Bodos, Assam's indigenous people, have been demanding a separate state within India to preserve their culture from the Hindu-dominated state government and from the millions of illegal Bangladeshi migrants flooding into the area. In Feb. 1993, India's federal government signed an accord with Bodo guerrilla leaders for the formation of the Autonomous Bodoland Area, which was supposed to end the armed insurgency. But Bodo leaders have been upset by the Indian government's continuing refusal to give the Bodoland Council jurisdiction over 515 villages along the Indo-Bhutan border. Bodo leaders have warned of a renewed outbreak of violence if the 4- mile (10-kilometer) strip of borderland were not included in the autonomous area. More than 3,000 people, mostly civilians, have died in the insurgency. ---
Copyright 1997 by United Press International. All rights reserved. ---
