DHAKA: Indian government has sought cooperation from Bangladesh in an offensive against a tribal militant group, National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB), that had shot dead at least 80 people in Assam state this week.

The government also sought help from Bhutan and Myanmar to hunt down NDFB militants.

Police believe that a faction of the NDFB, fighting for a separate state for ethnic Bodos, was behind coordinated attacks on tea plantation workers and their families this week, the deadliest in years.

Some militants may have fled to neighboring Bhutan while their leader was believed to be in Myanmar, officials and police said, prompting calls for cooperation, reports the Indian media The Financial Express.

The latest attacks, in which half the victims were women and children, have shaken Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government that came to power promising economic growth as well as a militarily secure India.

“This is terrorism, there is zero-tolerance for terrorism,” Home Minister Rajnath Singh, who flew to Assam to commiserate with the families of the victims, told reporters.

The northeast is wedged between China, Myanmar, Bangladesh and Bhutan, and militants are known to criss-cross borders that run through thickly forested mountains.

BDST: 1706 HRS, DEC 26, 2014