Your trusted source

Separatist rebels have killed at least 52 people in remote villages of India's north-eastern Assam state, the BBC reported, citing police.

Women and children were said to be among the victims, amid fears that the death toll could rise further.

Police blame the attacks on the National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB).

The NDFB wants an independent homeland for the ethnic group to be carved out of Assam. Tuesday's attacks took place in areas populated by non-Bodo people.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and senior Assam officials condemned the raid.

Police said the rebels attacked the villages in Sonitpur and Kokrajhar districts late on Tuesday.

Authorities have imposed an indefinite curfew in Sonitpur, where at least 30 people, including 10 women, were killed.

Those killed were mainly tribespeople who worked in the local tea gardens, reports said.

Villagers who escaped the attacks told police that the armed rebels came on foot, forced open the doors of their huts and opened fire. Some villagers were pulled out of their houses and gunned down.

"They didn't even spare women and children," a police officer told Reuters news agency.

In the past, Bodo rebels have targeted local tribespeople along with Muslim settlers.