Indian rebels to sign ceasefire

NEW DELHI - Separatist rebels from India's troubled state of Assam are to sign a ceasefire with the government for the first time in two decades, the Indian news agency PTI reported, quoting unidentified sources.

The National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) will sign a ceasefire on Wednesday with both the federal government in New Delhi and the state government of Assam, in northeastern India, PTI said in a report monitored by the BBC.

PTI said NDFB leaders were expected to meet Federal Home Minister Shivraj Patil on Wednesday before signing the ceasefire accord.

The breakthrough follows a peace offer from Assam's chief minister, Tarun Gogoi, about eight months ago, after which the NDFB called a unilateral ceasefire and put out peace feelers to the federal government, leading to talks in New Delhi, PTI said.

Some 10,000 people have been killed in Assam in the past 20 years in clashes between security forces and separatists seeking independence, more tribal rights or autonomy.

The NDFB, which is fighting for a separate homeland for ethnic Bodos, and the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA), demanding independence for Assam, are the biggest of some two dozen separatist groups in the area.

Northeast India is rich in tea, timber and oil, and separatists have accused New Delhi of plundering the region's resources and neglecting the local economy.

Security agencies believed the NDFB and ULFA had been weakened by a Bhutanese military offensive against their hideouts in Bhutan last October, but they later re-grouped and carried out new attacks.

- REUTERS