GUWAHATI, India (AFP) - At least 12 people were killed and seven wounded in a fresh bout of militant violence in India's restive northeastern state of Assam, police said.
Six heavily-armed militants belonging to the outlawed National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) descended on Jalabela village in western Assam and began firing indiscriminately on a group of people waiting in the village square, Dhubri district police chief L.R. Bishnoi told AFP.
Ten people -- all from the Muslim minority -- died on the spot in the 7:00 pm (1330 GMT) attack, the officer said.
It was the fourth attack by NDFB rebels in the district since Sunday.
Dhubri lies 280 kilometres (173 miles) west of Assam's main city Guwahati.
The fresh attacks took the death toll in past few days of violence in the northeast, which has two dozen militant and separatist groups, to 81 with 217 injured.
After the killings, the attackers escaped into adjoining thick jungle, Bishnoi said.
"The rebels used sophisticated weapons," the officer said.
The NDFB is a rebel group fighting for an independent homeland for the Bodo tribe and is active in parts of western and northern Assam.
NDFB militants Saturday killed 14 shoppers in Makrijhora, a village a few kilometers (miles) from Jalabela.
On Sunday, NDFB rebels bombed a market in Dhubri district's Gauripur area killing three and wounding 25 more.
In other violence in Dhubri early on Tuesday, the rebels killed a villager belonging to the rival Adivasi Santhal community while army soldiers shot dead a hardcore United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) militant in eastern Assam's Tinsukia district.
On Saturday, three bomb explosions in neighbouring Nagaland killed 28 and wounded 86, shattering months of relative peace in the scenic Himalayan region.