Guwahati: The situation in the trouble torn districts of Assam, which had started limping back to normal, took a turn on Thursday evening with hundreds of tribal villagers in relief camp and launching retaliatory attacks on Bodo villages in Gossaigaon area of Kokrajhar district.

Police said that a mob of tribal villagers, armed with spears and bows and arrows, defied the curfew and set three Bodo villages on fire. However, there was no report of any casualty in the attack as the police managed to drive them back to wards the relief camp.

The Army on Thursday inducted military helicopters to intensify vigil on the movement of NDFB rebels as the death toll climbed to 79 in the carnage by NDFB rebels and retaliatory attacks by tribals in Assam.

Army sources said that helicopters were inducted in the operation to track down NDFB rebels trying to flee to Bhutan and neighbouring Arunachal Pradesh, which is thickly forested and has hilly terrain.

Security sources said that Bidai the self-style commander of anti-talk faction of NDFB was the mastermind of the Tuesday carnage.

Meanwhile, deputy speaker of the Assam Assembly Bhimanand Tanti and former minister Ripun Bora were roughed up by an angry mob of plantation workers at Tinkhuti relief camp in Sonitpur district.

The refugees in the relief camp chased Mr Tanti for his remark in a TV interview on Wednesday where he said that such incidents take place in Pakistan and Syria also.