Two people were killed Tuesday as police fired on rioters in the north-eastern state of Assam, increasing the death toll in ethnic clashes to 24, officials said. Most of the dead were hacked to death in the violence between members of the Bodo ethnic group and Muslim migrants in which fires were also set in villages and a train was attacked. Government troops were given instructions to shoot suspected rioters and an indefinite curfew was being enforced in several areas, the NDTV news channel reported, citing local police. "The situation in three districts - Kokrajhar, Chirang and Dhubri - is tense and the presence of police and security forces has been increased substantially," LR Bishnoi, Assam's inspector general of police, said by phone. The violence erupted late Friday in the Kokrajhar district, 220 kilometres west of the state capital, Guwahati.
