Suspected militants belonging to the Dima Halam Daoga (Jewel), also known as Black Widow, gunned down eight labourers belonging to a private construction company engaged by the Railways in Assam’s North Cachar Hills district on Sunday. Official sources from Haflong, the district headquarters, said a group of four masked men arrived at a site near Phaiding Railway Station, under Mahur Police Station at 2.30 pm on Sunday and opened indiscriminate fire on the labourers who were at work, killing eight of them on the spot. Two others were critically injured.

The labourers belonged to a private company, Sukhdew Construction, and were engaged by Northeast Frontier Railways for civil construction works in the ongoing Lumding-Silchar hill section. Phaiding is located 33 km from Haflong. Police sources said all the labourers were from Karimganj district in Southern Assam. Four of the victims have been identified as Burauddin Ahmed, Zakir Hussain, Faizul Haque and Allauddin.

Earlier, on Saturday night suspected DHD (J) militants killed a pointsman of the Railways at Dautohaja, under Maibong Police Station, in the same district, about 50 km from Haflong. The same group had abducted five persons belonging to P L Valecha Engineering Company on the Saurashtra-to-Silchar East-West Corridor on March 13.