Maoist rebels ambush Indian troops, killing 27
A 63-member patrol of the Central Reserve Police Force was ambushed in dense forest
Patna: 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 on 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 which 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."
