Maoist rebels ambush troops in eastern India, killing 27 in latest bold attack
By Indrajit Singh, APTuesday, June 29, 2010
Maoist rebels ambush Indian troops, killing 27
PATNA, India — Up to 200 Maoist rebels ambushed paramilitary troops in eastern India, killing at least 27 in the latest bold attack by the guerrillas, a senior police official said.
A 63-member patrol of the Central Reserve Police Force was ambushed in dense forest Tuesday evening in the Narayanpur district of Chhattisgarh state, said Sunder Raj, a senior local police official. Ten troops were wounded, he said.
Girdharilal Naik, another police officer, said the paramilitary soldiers also fired at the insurgents, numbering up to 200, and the fighting lasted nearly 90 minutes.
The rebels fled after police reinforcements reached the remote area that is a stronghold of the rebels, who are also called Naxals, after the village of Naxalbari where their movement started in the 1970s.
Inspired by Chinese revolutionary leader Mao Zedong, the rebels have tapped into the rural poor’s growing anger at being left out of the country’s economic gains and are now present in 20 of India’s 28 states. They have an estimated 10,000 to 20,000 fighters.
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.”
They frequently target police and government officials, whom they accuse of colluding with landlords and rich farmers to exploit the poor.
About 2,000 people — including police, militants and civilians — have been killed over the past few years.
