80 Homes Burned as Groups Clash in Northeast India
GAUHATI, India July 24, 2012 (AP)
Government troops sent to quell communal clashes over land rights in a northeastern Indian state were under orders Tuesday to shoot suspected rioters on sight after 22 people were killed in machete attacks and dozens of homes were burned to the ground.
Some 50,000 villagers have fled to government camps for protection since violence erupted Friday between the ethnic Bodo community and Muslim settlers in Assam's western district of Kokrajhar, said the state's police chief, J.N. Choudhury.
Road and rail links connecting the narrow neck of the northeast to the main body of India were cut off, Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi said. However, he did not expect food shortages.
During the violence, police found 22 bodies, most of them hacked with machetes and left in the jungle or by the road or riverside. Overnight, some 80 homes were burned down as the violence spread to neighboring Dhubri and Chirang districts. No one was injured in the fires as the homes' occupants had already fled to the half-dozen or so camps set up by officials.
80 Homes Burned as Groups Clash in Northeast India - ABC News