With just three days to go before the 61st Independence Day, the separatist militants are on an offensive-spree in Assam.

The guerrillas of the outlawed United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA) and another tribal militia killed 14 Hindi-speaking people at a remote hamlet in the State’s Karbi Anglong district late at night on Friday.

The militants also triggered two explosions at Sukhajan and Diphu in the same district, killing a two-year-old child and injuring 16 others.

The fresh killings raised the death toll in the latest series of rebel offensives to 26 since August 5 last. Twenty-three of the deceased belonged to the Hindi-speaking community. Nearly 70 more people were injured in the attacks. The security forces also gunned down two ULFA militants.

The Sub-Divisional Police Officer (SDPO) S K Gogoi said a gang of armed militants stormed into Dala, a remote hamlet in Bokajan of Karbi Anglong, late at night on Friday and shot dead 14 Hindi-speaking people. The deceased belonged to two families.

Gogoi said the local tribal militia Karbi Longpi North Cacher Liberation Front (KLNLF) might have been helping the ULFA carry out the strikes in the district. The militants killed eight Hindi-speaking people at Ampahar in the same district last Wednesday. Besides, three more were killed and over 50 injured in a string of blasts across the State since last Sunday.

The Additional Director General of Police D K Pathak said the militant outfits have stepped up offensives to terrorise people and refrain them from taking part in the Independence Day celebrations on August 15.

The ULFA and some other rebel organisations have called upon people of the northeastern region to boycott the Independence Day celebration. They also called for a general strike across the region on August 15.

Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi said the security forces have been put on alert to pre-empt more strikes by the militants ahead of the Independence Day.

He said the State Government is ready to start a peace-process with the ULFA, if the outfit comes forward for ‘direct negotiations’. The CM visited the militancy-hit Karbi Anglong district on Saturday.

The ULFA has since 1979 been pursuing an armed rebellion to ‘liberate’ Assam from what it terms as a ‘colonial rule’ by New Delhi.

The KLNLF too has been carrying on an armed struggle for homeland for the tribal Karbis living in the two hill districts of Assam – Karbi Anglong and North Cacher.

A civil society initiative to facilitate peace-talks between the ULFA and the Union Government fell through last year. The outfit has since stepped up its offensives.

Its militants killed nearly 70 Hindi-speaking migrant people across the State last January.

The rebel organisation say the Hindi-speaking migrants and settlers from the ‘heartland’ States like Uttar Pradesh and Bihar are posing threat to the indigenous people of Assam.