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| India-Pakistan |
| 27 Indian troops killed in Maoist rebel ambush |
| 2010-07-01 |
| 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 on 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. The government launched a major offensive last year to tackle the worsening left-wing insurgency, but since then the Maoists have hit back -- triggering widespread criticism of officials and politicians. Maoist rebel groups have fought for decades throughout east and central India against state and government rule, drawing support from landless tribal groups and farmers left behind by the country's economic development. In the last major attack by suspected Maoists, one month ago 146 people were killed when a Mumbai-bound passenger train from Kolkata was derailed by saboteurs in a remote part of West Bengal state. The express veered into the path of an oncoming freight train after a section of the track was removed. |
| Posted by:Fred |