GUWAHATI, March 16: Three people were killed and 50 were injured in a grenade attack in India’s restive northeast on Sunday, police said.

Four policemen were among those injured in the attack on a religious festival organised by the Mising tribe in Jonai town, 560 kilometers east of Assam province’s largest city of Guwahati, a police spokesman said.

“The Mising community was celebrating their spring festival when the grenade attack took place in which three people, including a woman, were killed and 50 more injured,” spokesman B. Das said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility. But separatists have been campaigning for an independent homeland in tea and timber-rich Assam since 1979.

The attack came a day after six troopers and two rebels died in separate clashes in Assam and in nearby Manipur state, where 19 rebel groups are fighting for demands ranging from greater autonomy to independence.—AFP