Deadly Attacks Continue in India

The death toll from three days of violence in northeastern India reached at least 62 today after a mass shooting and the bombings of utilities, a tea plantation and a marketplace.

At least 18 bombings and shootings have been carried out since Saturday in Nagaland and Assam states, where dozens of ethnic rebel groups are fighting for separate homelands. The attacks -- including a blast Saturday in a train station -- angered even some separatist leaders.

No arrests have been made and no one has taken responsibility for the violence, police said. But Assam’s top police official blamed the attacks on two militant groups: the United Liberation Front of Assam and the National Democratic Front of Bodoland.

Sunday was the 18th anniversary of the Bodo group, which is demanding a homeland that would straddle Assam and Nagaland. On Friday, the government offered a cease-fire to both militant groups.

Seven people died in violent incidents Sunday. Three were killed when a bomb exploded near a market in Bijni, west of Guwahati, capital of Assam. An explosion in nearby Gauripur killed one person and left 25 hurt.

A bomb at a tea plantation in nearby Borhat killed one worker. Also in Borhat, a landmine blast hit government-run Oil India Ltd.’s natural gas pipeline.

Two suspected Bodo rebels died when explosives they were carrying detonated in Assam, Press Trust of India reported.

Early today, suspected rebels woke up villagers in Gelapukhuri, about 100 miles north of Guwahati, and shot six of them to death.

Home Minister Shivraj Patil, on a tour of the states, said more troops would be deployed to the region.