RAIPUR: A minimum of 12 Maoist insurgents were shot dead by Indian security forces, on Friday. Police informed those concerned regarding the latest clash in a ‘decades-long conflict’, waged in the country’s central forests.

The guerrilla fighters were killed in a remote part of Chhattisgarh state, where a number of deadly assaults on rebel encampments, have been witnessed this year.

“The bodies of 12 Maoists have been recovered during the search operation,” local police chief, Vivekananda Sinha, told the press. Sinha stated that security forces had ‘cordoned off’ a forested area within the Bijapur district, after they received intelligence signalling that insurgent cadres were meeting there.

Two members of the Indian security forces were wounded by ‘homemade bombs’ during the clash. However, neither was in a dangerous condition, he added. Search operations were continuing in the area, Sinha said.

More than 100 Maoists have been killed in India this year, according to police figures, with the vast majority killed in Chhattisgarh.

Published in Dawn, May 11th, 2024