RANCHI, Dec 13: Maoist rebels in the eastern Indian state of Jharkhand abducted six villagers suspected of being police informers and killed them in a forest, police said on Saturday.

“Maoist rebels killed the villagers on suspicion of being police informers,” said Satya Narayan Pradhan, a police spokesman.

He said the Maoists had accused one of the victims of tipping off police ahead of a raid on a rebel hideout.

The victim’s father had been arrested in November and charged with supplying explosives and detonators to the guerillas, he added.

Maoist rebels say they are fighting for the rights of poor farmers and landless labourers in an insurgency Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has described as one of the gravest threats to India’s internal security.

Thousands of people have been killed in the uprising, which began in the late 1960s.—Reuters