Oil strife goes on in Indian state

Violence flared up Monday near the oilhead Narengi, in Assam State, when police attacked thousands of demonstrators with clubs and tear gas and striking workers defied orders to resume operators at the vital oil installation. A correspondent for the Press Trust of India news agency said he saw police clubbing women with bamboo staves. Some 150 people were hurt.

Police and troops Sunday broke a four-month blockade of the oil installation that was part of a campaign by Assamese to force the expulsion of migrant workers who have entered the state over the past 30 years. The strike that followed, in protest to the crackdown, foiled government efforts to get oil moving again from Assam to the rest of India.