NEW DELHI: Police officials said that at least 10 security force personnel and their civilian driver were killed in India’s Chhattisgarh state on Wednesday. According to AFP, the security forces personnel were killed when their vehicle hit an improvised explosive device. Police accused Maoist insurgents for the attack in the area.
10 Indian Police Personnel Killed in Chhattisgarh: Officials
The Additional Director General of Police for Chhattisgarh told AFP that the blast took place when the security forces were returning from an operation in the area.
India’s long-running Maoist insurgency started in the 1960s and has cost thousands of lives in the region. Today’s deaths were the worst casualties for security troops in recent days. No group has claimed responsibility for the explosion so far.
India has deployed tens of thousands of troops to battle the Maoists across the insurgent-dominated area known as the “Red Corridor”. Naxal groups said that they are fighting for poor and rural people. According to AFP, they (Maoists) are believed to be present in more than ten states in India but are most active in remote areas of the country’s interior.
Reports suggest that 21 police and paramilitaries forces were killed in a gun battle with the far-left guerrillas in 2021. Similarly, in March 2020, seventeen police personnel were killed in an attack by rebels in Chhattisgarh.
Sixteen commandos were also killed in Maharashtra in an explosion that was blamed on the Maoist rebels in the lead-up to India’s elections in 2019. _AFP
