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40 cops feared dead in attack
15/03/2007 11:53 - (SA)
New Delhi - Nearly 40 police officers were feared killed after suspected communist rebels opened fire and lobbed hand grenades at their jungle post in the country's remote east early on Thursday, a news report said.
The Maoist insurgents also used petrol bombs to attack the officers' post in Rani Bodli, Chattisgarh state, nearly 1 500km southeast of New Delhi, the Press Trust of India news agency said.
"Some bodies and weapons are lying in that area, which we have not yet counted. So, we can't give the actual figure of death in the attack," PTI quoted RK Vij, a senior police officer, as saying.
Another 13 police officers were wounded in the attack, PTI reported.
Before fleeing with police weapons, the attackers scattered land mines around the area, making it difficult for security forces to chase after them, PTI said. Police reinforcements have been rushed to the area, it said.
The rebel assault was the latest in a series of attacks on security forces in region, where widespread poverty has fuelled a lengthy insurgency.
More than 6 000 people - police, soldiers, and civilians suspected to be police informers - have been killed since the rebels launched their campaign from the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh more than two decades ago.
The rebels, who claim to be inspired by Chinese revolutionary Mao Zedong, have been fighting in several Indian states, demanding land and jobs for agricultural labourers and the poor.
The rebels, known as Naxalites from the Naxalbari region where the movement was born, are mainly active in six of India's 28 states - Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand, Bihar, Karnataka, Orissa and Chattisgarh.
- AP
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