Suspected militants belonging to the proscribed United Liberation Front of Asom shot dead two Hindi-speaking persons at Talap near Doom Dooma in Upper Assam's Tinsukia district at around 7 pm on Monday.

Police informed that a group of suspected ULFA militants who had come in a Maruti [Get Quote] car, opened indiscriminate fire at Lucky Sweets in Talap market seriously injuring the owner Tapan Kundu and his driver Ramvilas Sah.

Both the injured were immediately rushed to the nearby government health centre at Doom Dooma where they succumed to their injuries about 40 minutes later.

Police and the army launched a manhunt in the area to nab the culprits. The area is a known bastion of the banned militant group and has heavy presence of the army.

Industrially developed Tinsukia district, which has a sizeable population of Hindi-speaking people including traders and large number of Bihari labourers, has witnessed killings of a large number of Hindi-speaking people during the last couple of years.

The banned ULFA has often resorted to training its gun on people belonging to the Hindi-speaking community, some of whom have settled down in the state for several generations.

The banned ULFA creates terror among the community to serve its extortion purposes.