Two NDFB militants killed in Assam

GUWAHATI - Two tribal militants belonging to the outlawed National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) were killed Wednesday and two more arrested in separate incidents in Assam, officials said.

A police spokesperson said that soldiers and a group of five NDFB militants were engaged in a fierce gun battle near Itakhola in Sonitpur district.

The security personnel had received inputs that the rebels were planning to sneak into Tezpur town, about 180 km here.

“Based on specific intelligence inputs about the presence of a five member NDFB group of bombers planning to enter Tezpur, an army team launched an operation and killed two of the rebels,” a senior police official said.

Three of the bombers managed to escape after a nearly hour long gunfight. Weapons and explosives, including two grenades, were recovered from them.

“We had definite reports of the NDFB group planning a strike in Tezpur,” the official said.

In another incident, a joint team of police and army soldiers raided a house belonging to the NDFB in the adjoining Dhemaji district and arrested two rebels.

“The two were possibly involved in extortion activities in the area,” a police official said.

The NDFB is a rebel group fighting for an independent homeland for the tribal Bodos and the group is accused of triggering the Oct 30, 2008 serial explosions in Assam that killed about 100 people.

NDFB chairman and the mastermind of the serial bombings, Ranjan Daimary, is in police custody after he was handed over to India by Bangladesh in May.