GAUHATI India AP Suspected tribal separatists attacked a Bhutanese general's convoy as it passed through India Tuesday shooting and killing three of his escorts Indian police said. The general traveling through Indian territory from one part of Bhutan to another was unhurt. Six other soldiers were injured four of them critically in the attack in the Kokila Forest 170 kilometers about 100 miles west of Gauhati capital of Assam state. Police said the attackers were believed to be militants from the Bodo tribe who are active in the region. It was not clear why the general identified by Indian police only as Brig. Datto was traveling in the volatile region. Bhutanese officials were not immediately available for comment. Both the Bodo Liberation Tiger Force and the National Democratic Front of Bodoland want to carve out a separate Bodoland from Indian territory for the Bodos who are nearly 1.2 million of Assam's 22 million people. The militants are entrenched in camps in southern Bhutan from where they stage hit-and-run attacks on Indian security forces. But it is rare for Bodo militants to strike Bhutanese forces and risk antagonizing a government that has so far been careful to stay out of the Indian dispute. The attackers may have thought the relatively large escort accompanying the general was part of an offensive. India says hundreds of guerrillas from its northeastern state of Assam have set up camps in southern Bhutan. The Indian army is forbidden to give chase across the frontier because that would violate Bhutanese sovereignty. Bhutan says it does not want to give the guerrillas sanctuary but its own army of just 6000 fighters is unable to secure the area. Bhutan is believed to fear that if it allows India to attack the guerrilla bases the rebels will retaliate by cutting off its vital road links to India. Bhutan relies on India for 85 percent of its imports and for tens of millions of dollars in development aid annually. The guerrilla bases are a rare point of discord between India and Bhutan the closest allies among the countries of South Asia. APW19981201.0040.txt.body.html APW19981201.0636.txt.body.html