Separatists Suspected in Settlers’ Slayings

Separatist militants were suspected of shooting to death 20 Muslim settlers and seriously wounding five others in the dense jungle of a northeastern Indian state wracked by secessionist violence. No one claimed responsibility for the attack near Panijaan village in Assam state. But Mrinal Baruah, the top state Interior Ministry official, blamed guerrillas of the outlawed National Democratic Front of Bodoland, which wants to carve out a separate nation for the Bodo people. Gunmen sprayed bullets with automatic rifles at the Muslims, who had trekked into the forest early Saturday for a community feast, according to police. Bodo tribal people, who represent nearly 1.2 million of Assam’s 22 million people, complain of discrimination by the federal government in allocation of scarce resources to the northeastern states. Since 1993, Bodo militants have attacked Muslims who settled from Bangladesh.