Migrants flee India’s Assam state

GUWAHATI, INDIA — Thousands of migrant laborers in buses, trucks and trains fled northeastern India in the second day of an exodus triggered by separatists who have killed scores of workers.

Militants have killed 72 people, most of them Hindi-speaking migrants, in Assam state since Friday, sparking widespread fear in a community that comes to Assam for eight months a year to work at brick kilns.

The workers headed back to their homes in the eastern states of Bihar, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh on Tuesday, accompanied by their wives and children.

Many flocked to the train station in Guwahati, the main city in Assam, while others pooled money and hired trucks or buses to get away from the worst violence in the state in years.

“We are leaving; we are no longer safe here and have no faith in the police,” said Raghu Nath Jha of Bihar state, who worked in one of the dozens of brick kilns.

Late Tuesday, two policemen were injured when a motorcycle bomb exploded outside a police station in the suburb of Dispur.

The attacks have been blamed on the United Liberation Front of Assam, which has been fighting for the independence of Assamese people in a conflict that has killed thousands of people since it began almost three decades ago.

Last week, the ULFA warned non-Assamese businessmen and laborers of dire consequences if they continued to live in Assam. It accused New Delhi of flooding the state with outsiders to reduce the indigenous Assamese population to a minority.

Hundreds of troops have been deployed in the state, and authorities are sheltering laborers at government buildings during the night while police keep vigil at the kilns during the day.