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Seven die in police fire
26/07/2003 13:16 - (SA)
Guwahati - Seven people were killed and a dozen injured when police opened fire on a crowd in India's northeastern state of Assam during a strike to protest the creation of a tribal council, officials said on Saturday.
Police fired at the supporters of the All Adivasi Students' Association of Assam (AASAA) on Friday after they pelted them with stones at Kachubeel, 70 kilometres north of the state capital Guwahati, a police spokesperson said.
"Four student activists died on the spot while three succumbed to bullet injuries in hospitals," the spokesperson said.
At least 12 more were seriously wounded in the police firing, he said.
The AASAA is a powerful students group representing the state's Adivasis, India's original inhabitants predating the Aryan invasions more than 3 000 years ago. Adivasis are disproportionately poor and in Assam many labour on tea plantations.
The police spokesperson said some 300 AASAA supporters were forcibly trying to close down shops and businesses on Friday.
"The mob, armed with spears and machetes, attacked the police and smashed vehicles with stones prompting the security forces to open fire," the spokesperson said.
The AASAA had called the 12-hour strike on Friday to oppose the creation earlier this year of the Bodo Territorial Council (BTC), a body granting greater self-rule to the Bodo ethnic group.
"We cannot accept the accord as in some of the proposed BTC areas, non-Bodos are in a majority," said Justine Lakra, president of the AASAA.
"Once the BTC is created, radical Bodos will indulge in organised pogroms to drive away all non-Bodos from the Bodo-majority areas," he charged.
Armed Bodo militants have been fighting for greater autonomy. More than 10 000 people have died over the past two decades in Assam in an array of insurgencies.
Tensions has been rife for years between Bodos and Adivasis in Assam, with deadly riots breaking out in 1996.
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