At least 22 Indian security personnel were killed and 30 injured in an ambush by Maoist rebels in the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh, the deadliest incident of its kind in four years.
Officials said on Sunday that security personnel belonging to the Central Reserve Police Force’s elite CoBRA unit, the District Reserve Guard, and the Special Task Force were attacked on Saturday in the tribal-dominated Chhattisgarh state during an anti-insurgency operation.
“We can confirm that 22 of Indian force members have been killed by Maoist fighters,” said a senior government official in Raipur, the capital of mineral-rich Chhattisgarh.
They were killed in firing that lasted for four hours in the border district of Sukma, 540km (340 miles) south of Raipur.
Indian security personnel killed after ambush by Maoists
today.ng - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from today.ng Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Five troops killed as Indian forces raid Maoist rebel hideout
aljazeera.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from aljazeera.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Kolkata, India – “If I go, they will kill me,” says the voice of an Indian police officer fearful of retribution from left-wing rebels. He regrets not being able to visit his family in a village in central India.
In another audio recording, a poor local tribeswoman says her brother was jailed by the police last year after being falsely accused of being a guerrilla.
“Why has he stopped farming? Why does he sleep in houses other than his?” she says, parroting the police’s charges.
These are two of the many accounts recorded in an ongoing civil society effort to document the testimonies of those who have suffered from a long-running violent conflict between state forces and left-wing fighters, also called Maoists or “Naxalites”, in central India.