The army staged a flag march and an indefinite curfew was clamped in Assam's Lakhi Bazar, after seven people were killed in mob violence and police firing, during a bandh on Wednesday.

The seven people were killed as police opened fire to quell a group of agitators, belonging to the immigrant Muslim non-Rabha community, who attacked the police with sharp weapons. The police fired at the crowd after attempts to disperse them by lathi-charge and blank-firing failed, official sources said.

The agitators were trying to enforce a 48-hour bandh by a non-Rabha organisation, beginning today, in South Kamrup and Goalpara districts by putting up road blocks.

While five people died shortly after being admitted to the hospital, two others succumbed to their injuries later.

Seven policemen, including officials of the Lakhipur police station and its officer in chage Kabindra Chandra Saikia, were injured in the attack by the mob. The angry crowd also burnt police vehicles and five buses in the nearby areas. A civilian was also seriously hurt in the violence.

The bandh had been called by an organisation of non-Rabhas in the district to oppose elections to the local Rabha Autonomous Council. The Rabhas are a local ethnic

community.

The administration has postponed the second phase of Panchayat polls in the area, earlier scheduled to be held on January 4, due to the violence.