The Assam Police and central home ministry officials have accused the Ingti Kathar Songbijit faction of the National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB-IKS) of being behind last week’s ethnically targeted killings in the Kokrajhar district of Assam. The attacks on Muslims of East Bengali descent were, according to them, reprisals for the way they voted. Allegedly, they are supporting independent candidate, Naba Sarania, who is challenging the Bodoland People’s Congress candidate, Assam cabinet minister Chandan Brahma. The fear is that Sarania might win the prestigious Kokrajhar seat with the support of mostly non-Bodos, who are feeling more and more insecure under the Bodoland Territorial Autonomous Council [BTAC] dispensation. That could adversely affect the future of the ethnic Bodo cause, on which moderate and extremist ethnic Bodo organizations broadly agree.