Guwahati: At least 14 daily wage labourers of minority community were found dead in mysterious circumstances in a remote village of East Jaintia Hills district of Meghalaya.

Police said the workers are suspected to have died after consuming some poisonous wild fruits. However, the family members suspect the role of militants behind this.

Superintendent of police of East Jaintia Hills district said that all the deceased were working at a road construction site at Umphung village. All of them had gone to nearby forest area and collected some poisonous fruits, after consumption of which all of them died.

A labourer, who was also working on the same site, claimed that some militants had demanded money from the workers that they refused.