Ethnic unrest flares in Assam again; 4 killed

Four people have been shot dead in India's restive northeast in the latest outbreak of ethnic violence which has claimed 10 lives this week, officials said yesterday.
Heavily armed gunmen attacked the village of Joraibari in the western Kokrajhar district late Friday, 230 kilometres from the state of Assam's main city of Guwahati, authorities said.
"Three members of a family and another (distant) relative were shot dead by unidentified gunmen," Biswajit Daimary, a member of parliament and leader of the Bodoland People's Party (BPF), told AFP by telephone.
A young teenager was also critically injured in the shooting. All the victims were Muslims.
The government said there had been a "massive deployment of army, police, and paramilitary troopers" to quell the fighting between indigenous Bodo tribes and Muslim settlers who have been embroiled for years in territorial disputes.
"The situation is tense," Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi told reporters.
An indefinite curfew has been clamped on the Kokrajhar district and soldiers are conducting counter-insurgency operations in troubled areas, police said.
Clashes between the Bodos and the Muslim settlers in July left at least 80 dead and displaced 450,000 people.