The Hindu : National : `Black Widows' behind ambush?

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`Black Widows' behind ambush?

Special Correspondent

Railway team proceeding to project site targeted

Guwahati: Eleven persons, including seven Railway Protection Special Force personnel and a section engineer of the Northeast Frontier Railway, were killed and three others injured when suspected `Black Widow' militants ambushed a railway team in central Assam's North Cachar Hills district on Friday.

`Black Widow' is a faction of the Dimasa militant outfit, Dima Halam Daogah (DHD).

The team was on its way to a site of the Rs. 1,500-crore Lumding-Silchar broad gauge conversion project when the militants sprayed bullets on it from AK-47 assault rifles.

Among those killed were two drivers and the employee of a contractor. Police recovered three live grenades and empty cartridges of AK-47 rifles. The injured were shifted to the Divisional Railway Hospital at Lumding, where one person was in a critical condition. Senior officials of the Railways, the Army and the police rushed to the spot.

Assam Chief Secretary S. Kabilan told The Hindu that the Government would rush five companies of paramilitary forces to intensify patrolling. The Black Widows had served extortion notices on railway contractors. Police said the Black Widows had set a September 1 deadline for all construction companies involved in railway projects to pay ransom. The deadline was later extended.

On September 10, 12 suspected Black Widow militants set ablaze labour camps at Asong Haju and Saron Basti.

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