Nagaon, May 11: Suspected members of the Jewel Gorlosa faction of the Dima Halam Daogah gunned down eight labourers engaged in construction of railway quarters in North Cachar Hills this afternoon, a day after the outfit issued a diktat to stop all work on the East-West corridor and broad gauge conversion projects.

Both the diktat and the attack are suspected to be in retaliation to the alleged killing of a dozen of their comrades by the army in an encounter at Harelu in the district yesterday.

The construction site at Thoibasti in Faiding, is just about a kilometre from the headquarters of the 8 Sikh Regiment, the troops of which were involved in yesterday’s encounter.

While some sources said the encounter took place at Harelu near the state’s border with Manipur, others said it was in fact at a place called Tamei just across Harelu inside Manipur.

Work on the East-West corridor in the Mahur-Maibong section was stopped following the diktat, though that did not stop the rebels from killing the workers.

A 10-member armed gang of the Dimasa outfit reached the railway construction site in Faiding and opened indiscriminate fire on the labourers. “A railway contractor, Saifur Rahman, had engaged the eight labourers in constructing the quarters. Rahman was not at the spot at the time of the attack,” a police officer said.

A team of Mahur police reached the spot half-an-hour later and launched a massive combing operation.

Today’s was the second major strike by the militant group.

Around 9.45pm last night, the militant group fired at the main building of Wadengdisa railway station and killed gangman J. Rajulu. Two other railway officials miraculously escaped.

The Dimasa group said 12 of its members were gunned down even though it offered ceasefire to the government on March 25.

“Taking advantage of the ceasefire offered by us they (the security force) started killing our cadres. Following yesterday’s killing, we decided to withdraw the proposal,” DHD (J) publicity secretary Faiphang Dimasa said over telephone.

The army, however, today said its troops had not found a single body of DHD (J) militants despite a massive search in the area after the encounter.

The army, however, confirmed there was a “heavy exchange of fire” between the two sides.

The DHD (J), on the other hand, said it had six of the bodies in its possession and that 13 others were injured.