RAIPUR: Indian commandos shot dead at least 25 Maoist rebels in central India on Wednesday, police said, as security forces ramp up efforts to crush the long-running conflict.
India is waging an all-out offensive against the last vestiges of the Naxalite rebellion, named after the village in the foothills of the Himalayas where the Maoist-inspired guerrilla movement began nearly six decades ago.
More than 12,000 rebels, soldiers and civilians have died since a handful of villagers rose up against their feudal lords there in 1967.
At its peak in the mid-2000s, the rebellion controlled nearly a third of the country with an estimated 15,000 to 20,000 fighters.
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“Over 25 Maoists were killed in an encounter,” senior Chhattisgarh state police official Vivekanand Sinha told AFP.
The firefight broke out deep inside a forest in Chhattisgarh’s Narayanpur district, a remote and densely wooded region that has long served as a Maoist stronghold.
Sinha said the gun battle took place after intelligence reports indicated the presence of “top Maoist leaders” in the area.
But Sinha said it was not clear who exactly had been killed.
“The bodies have not yet been identified,” Sinha said.
India’s Home Minister Amit Shah has said the government is committed to “eradicating Naxalism from its roots” by March 31 next year.
Earlier this month, police said they had killed 31 Maoist rebels during a three-week operation aimed at capturing a strategic hill range previously under the control of guerrillas.
A crackdown by Indian troops has killed more than 400 rebels since last year, according to government data.
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