At least 63 people have been killed in a series of attacks by tribal militants in India’s remote northeastern state of Assam, a police official said Wednesday.
The attacks by fighters from the Bodo tribe took place Tuesday, Assam Police Inspector-General S.N. Singh told CNN.
The Bodo insurgents — apparently angry over a recent police crackdown that led to several arrests and the seizure of weapons — targeted members of another tribal community, said Khagen Sarma, the state police chief.
India’s impoverished northeast region has a high concentration of extremist groups from different backgrounds with conflicting ethnic and political interests.
Members of the Bodo tribe, an indigenous group, have fought for decades for political autonomy.
They also have long-standing tensions with Muslim settlers in Assam. But in this case, they attacked members of another tribal community, police said.
Sarma didn’t provide the name of the tribespeople who were targeted, but called them “soft targets.” He said the Bodo fighters used guns in the attacks.
Authorities have ordered a curfew in areas targeted by the extremists, police said.
Indian Home Minister Rajnath Singh is expected to visit Assam on Wednesday to review the situation, his spokesman K.S. Dhatwalia said.
Dozens of people were killed in ethnic violence involving Bodo tribe members and Muslim migrants in 2012. The unrest, in which villages were burned down, displaced hundreds of thousands of people.