A rebel group fighting for a tribal homeland in India's troubled northeast has signed a cease-fire accord with the Indian government, raising prospects of peace in the remote region, officials said Wednesday. The agreement was signed Tuesday between the federal and Assam state governments and the National Democratic Front of Bodoland, said Home Ministry spokesman Abhishek Dayal. The group has been fighting for a separate homeland for the Bodo tribe in Assam state since 1986. The Bodos comprise nearly 2 million of the state's 26 million people. More than 10,000 people have died in separatist violence over the past decade in the northeast, home to more than a dozen militant groups, The Associated Press reported. The agreement was not made public Tuesday because Home Minister Shivraj Patil, who was expected to meet with militant representatives on Wednesday in New Delhi, was out of town, Dayal said.
