27 Indian paramilitary troops die in Maoist rebel ambush in eastern state
By APTuesday, June 29, 2010
27 Indian troops die in Maoist rebel ambush
PATNA, India — Maoist rebels killed at least 27 paramilitary troops in an ambush in eastern India on Tuesday, the latest in a series of bold attacks by the guerrillas, a senior police official said.
A 50-strong patrol of the Central Reserve Police Force was ambushed Tuesday evening on a routine patrol in a densely forested area in the Narayanpur district of Chhatisgarh state, said Sunder Raj, a senior local police official. Ten other troops were wounded, he said.
Few other details were immediately available from the remote area. It is a stronghold of the rebels, who are also called Naxals, after the village of Naxalbari where their movement started in the 1970s.
In recent months, the rebels have grown bolder despite a renewed government military offensive against them.
Late last month, officials blamed the group for causing a train derailment that killed nearly 150 people in West Bengal state. In April they killed 76 troops in an attack in Chhattisgarh.
India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has called the rebels the country’s greatest “internal security threat.”
