India: 12 killed overnight in clashes between locals and Muslim settlers

GUWAHATI, India (AFP) — Indian police recovered 12 bodies from rice fields and roadsides in the remote state of Assam on Wednesday as the death toll from ethnic violence rose to 38 after four days of bloody clashes.

At least 170,000 villagers have fled their homes to seek shelter in relief camps, government buildings and schools to escape the unrest, which has raged since Friday with scores of homes burnt down by rioters.

Military reinforcements were called in to try to quell the fighting between indigenous Bodo tribes and Muslim settlers who have competed for years in long-standing territorial disputes.

"It appears all these 12 people were killed in overnight attacks," said Tarun Gogoi, the chief minister of Assam, a oil and tea-rich state in the northeast of India bordering on Bhutan and Bangladesh.

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