Thousands Flee Indian Villages as Clashes Kill 18 Tens of thousands of villagers have fled their homes in fear of rioting that has killed at least 18 people in recent days in the remote northeast Indian state of Assam, police said Monday. An additional 10 people have gone missing since the clashes over land rights erupted in western Kokrajhar district between the region's ethnic Bodo community and Muslim settlers, Assam's police chief J.N. Choudhury said. The violence has spread to two neighboring districts. Police have discovered bodies hacked by machetes and left in the jungle or along roadsides or river banks. India has sent troops in to quell the clashes, and opened at least a half-dozen shelters for some 30,000 people, mostly women and children, who have fled their villages in search of protection.