The bodies of Ruma Sonar (top) and her cousin Ram Kumar Sonar in Dolamora on Tuesday. Telegraph pictures

Nagaon/Guwahati, Dec. 2: A Karbi militant gunned down a Hindi-speaking tempo driver and his cousin at Dolamora this morning, hours after a bomb exploded on a train in Diphu and two more were recovered from a Congress office and bus shed at Dokmoka.

The string of events coincided with the Karbi Longri North Cachar Hills Liberation Front (KLNLF) clamping an “economic blockade” on the district from today.

A militant of the outfit, armed with an AK-47, walked to a cluster of houses near Dolamora around 10.15am and took aim.

Ram Kumar Sonar, 27, who was sitting on the verandah, got hit and died instantly.

The militant then trained his gun on 14-year-old Ruma Sonar, the slain youth’s cousin, and sprayed bullets on her, before fleeing.

A tempo driver at Bokakhat in Golaghat, Ram had come down to Dolamora only that morning for a visit.

Ruma’s father, Dilip, said a young girl had noticed an “unknown” man walking down to their village and warned them.

“I alerted everyone to hide. But it was too late. The unknown person carrying a rifle opened fire,” said Dilip, who has been living the village for the past few years.

Police later said they found several spent cartridges of AK-47 rifle from the site of the incident.

Today’s attack comes exactly a month after militants gunned down three Hindi-speaking persons in Sukanjuri, on the district’s border with Nagaon, on the eve of Chhath.

It was later found that the three had refused to pay extortion sums to the KLNLF.

In February, Hindi-speaking people in Karbi Anglong had been advised by the administration to shift to the safety of relief camps or consider moving out of the district temporarily to escape an ethnic pogrom.

The government’s suggestion came after two Hindi speaking people were killed by suspected KLNLF militants on February 24 this year.

An ethnic hate campaign claimed 34 lives in the hill district last year.

In August last year, nine migrants fell to rebel bullets near today’s incident site.

But unlike earlier attacks, today’s killings came co-ordinated with blast plans.

While one bomb exploded on a train around 8am, two more were recovered from the Dokmoka Congress office and a bus passengers’ shed under Hauraghat police station.

The police said both the bombs were planted by suspected Karbi militants.

A breakaway faction of the United People’s Democratic Solidarity (UPDS), the KLNLF was floated by Harsing Timung after the mother outfit announced a ceasefire in 2001.

The Karbi attacks came on a day when the All Assam Students’ Union demanded the resignation of chief minister Tarun Gogoi for the October 30 serial blasts in the state.

AASU general secretary Tapan Kumar Gogoi, in a statement, said the chief minister has no right to continue in office. “He still holds his position because he has no morality”.