The Centre is likely to rush additional paramilitary forces to trouble-torn areas along the Assam-Nagaland border to maintain peace and prevent the clashes between Naga and Karbi tribals from spreading.
Sources said preliminary investigations suggest the involvement of a dominant Naga insurgent group in the killings but it was too early to come to a firm conclusion.
Nine people-- eight labourers and one student leader-- were brutally killed and buried in Nagaland's commercial hub Dimapur. The victims were blindfolded with hands tied and shot at from close range and the corpses were stacked atop each other.
Around 1,500 paramilitary personnel were already deployed along the Assam-Nagaland border in Karbi Anglong district from where the victims belong and more troops are expected to be sent soon to check the violence, the sources said.
Nearly 2000 people from each of the communities have moved into separate relief camps after they fled their respective villages as tension gripped the border areas.
The killing of the nine people had followed the murder of four Rengma Nagas, including three women, allegedly by Karbi Peoples Liberation Tigers militants. The KPLT attack had come in retaliation of killing of its two cadres allegedly by Naga Rengma Hills Protection Force and torching of several houses were on December 27, the sources said.
A CBI investigation into the incident, as demanded by Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi, could be ordered only when the Nagaland government agrees to it.
The sources said a probe by the premier investigating agency is unlikely as of now since the Nagaland government has already constituted a Special Investigating Team (SIT) to go into the issue.
