Three Northeast Frontier Railway employees were killed when suspected militants belonging to the Dima Halam Daogah (Jewel Garlosa) group, also known as the Black Widow, hurled grenades at Harangajao railway station in the North Cachar Hills district of Assam late on Monday night.

According to sources, two railway employees � K C Malakar and M M Palayya � died on the spot. Another employee, whose identity was yet to be ascertained, succumbed to his injuries later in the Lumding Railway Hospital.

The small station, located at a remote place in the foothills of Borail range, is approximately 22 km away from Haflong, the headquarter of the North Cachar Hills district. Senior army officials and police officials rushed to the spot after the strike and a combing operation has been launched in the area.

The Black Widow militants have kept the NFR authority under tremendous pressure since work on the mega gauge conversion project began in the Lumding-Badarpur section. Several personnel, including security men, railway employees and personnel from private construction companies have been killed by the attacks carried out in the past.

The Black Widow ultras have been allegedly extorting huge amounts of money from the contractors engaged in the railway gauge conversion project as well as the East-West Corridor project of the National Highway Authority of India.

Many other government organisations, including the central sector power company and the North Eastern Electric Power Corporation, have also faced the extortion spree of the Black Widow militants. The group slapped a Rs 2 crore extortion notice on the NEEPCO authority and subsequently launched attacks on employees and security men engaged in the Kopili Hydro Power Project of the NEEPCO in North Cachar Hill district.

The Assam government has decided to buy at least eight bulletproof vehicles, for the movement of the security personnel as well as of the North Eastern Electric Power Corporation staffers, to their work site in Kopili power project.