RANCHI (India), April 1: Police killed eight Maoist rebels in a firefight in India’s eastern Jharkhand state, an official spokesman said on Tuesday.

Security forces raided the Ranka forest overnight from Monday to Tuesday after receiving a tip, police spokesman Raj Kumar Mallik said.

“The security personnel rounded up the Maoist rebels and asked them to surrender. The rebels started firing, and in the gun battle eight rebels were killed,” he said.

Authorities recovered guns and ammunition from the rebels, he added.

The Maoists are active in 18 of the 24 districts of the state, where more than 1,000 people — civilians, security personnel and rebels — have been killed in the past seven years.

The Maoist insurgency has spread to 15 of India’s 29 states from just four in 1996. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has described the rebels as the single biggest threat to India’s internal security.—AFP