Separatist rebels in India's restive north-eastern state of Assam killed 48 people, mostly labourers and traders, in a series of coordinated overnight attacks, police said today.
Police said heavily armed United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) guerrillas gunned down at least 32 people -- mostly brick kiln workers and traders -- in the state's eastern district of Tinsukia in separate raids.
A further 15 labourers, including a woman, were killed in two strikes in adjacent Dibrugarh district. Another person was killed when militants triggered a blast in Sivasagar district.
"The death toll now stands at 48," said Tarun Gogoi, Assam's chief minister.
Police said the violence was an attempt to intimidate people after an independent opinion poll by a peace group in nine districts of the oil and tea producing state showed 90 per cent of the people rejected the ULFA's separatist demands.
Authorities clamped a round-the-clock curfew in Tinsukia after thousands of angry residents came out on the streets protesting the failure of the security forces to provide safety.
Most of the victims were migrant labourers from the eastern state of Bihar who have been attacked by the rebels in the past to attract the attention of the federal government, security officials said.