Tribal Fighting Continues In India

Tribespeople fought with guns and poison-tipped arrows Saturday in the fourth day of violence that has killed 40 people and destroyed 38 villages in a remote northeastern state.

Twenty bodies were recovered Saturday from a Friday night battle between Bodo and Santhal tribespeople in Assam state, said police in Guwahati, the state capital.

Tens of thousands of people were left homeless when the rioters burned down mud-and-thatch huts. Many took shelter in 10 relief camps, while thousands of others fled to the neighboring state of West Bengal, said Rajendra Mushahary, state government minister for tribes.

Tensions between the Bodo and the Santhal tribes, which dominate the area, rose last week when the bodies of three young Bodo women were discovered in the forest. The Bodos accused the Santhals of killing the women.