At least four Hindi-speaking people were shot dead and two others injured by militants from the banned outfit National Democratic Front of Bodoland in Assam on Tuesday.
Heavily-armed NDFB ultras fired from AK-47 rifles on a group of people near Naharani tea estate at Rangapara in central Assam's Sonitput district at 9.30 am, killing the four, police said. Besides two women, a man and a boy from the same family were shot dead by the militants.
The injured have been admitted to a hospital in Tezpur and the police have launched a combing operation to apprehend the killers. The police believe that the killing could be in retaliation against the stepped up operations launched by security forces, which have killed nearly 30 militants.
