AFP: Troops sent to quell tribal clashes in India's Assam

India's northeastern Assam state deployed paramilitary troops Monday to quell clashes between Muslim migrants and tribal groups that have left almost 50 people dead.

Some 100,000 people have been forced to flee their homes as a result of the violence that broke out Friday and swiftly spread through three districts of the state.

The death toll rose to 49 on Monday after eight people injured in fighting over the weekend died in hospital and nine more bodies were recovered from the violence-hit areas, state health minister Himanta Biswa Sarma told reporters.

A senior Assam police official said an additional 2,100 paramilitary personnel had been sent to the affected areas, where curfews with shoot-on-sight orders have already been imposed.

The clashes, between members of the Bodo tribal group and Muslim settlers originally from Bangladesh, have seen raids on villages by groups armed with bows and poison-tipped arrows, spears and machetes.