India ? A second day of bloodshed in India’s restive northeast took at least 21 lives Saturday, with 13 migrant workers shot while they slept and eight government employees killed by a land mine explosion.

On Friday, a series of attacks by suspected separatist rebels killed 35 other migrants and wounded at least 19 in Assam state’s tea-growing districts of Tinsukia and Dibrugarh, officials said.

The attacks were the worst violence in the region in years and widely seen as an attempt by the insurgents to boost waning support among the impoverished area’s indigenous peoples and force the government to resume peace talks.

Migrants are frequently attacked by rebels of the United Liberation Front of Asom in an effort to draw national attention to their demands for independence for ethnic Assamese.