Security forces kill eight Maoists

KOLKATA: Indian security forces have killed eight suspected Maoists during an ongoing operation to clear a rebel stronghold in the country’s east, police said on Wednesday.

The Maoist rebels, including two women, were shot dead in the Sijua forests of Midnapore district, 170 kilometres from Kolkata, capital of the West Bengal state.

“The gun battle is on and there may be more casualties,” senior police officer Surojit Kar Purokayastha told a news agency.

He said paramilitary forces attacked rebel hideouts where the Maoists had assembled for a meeting.

On Monday, security forces killed 10 rebels in neighbouring Jharkhand state, which is also in eastern India’s so-called “Red Corridor” of territory gripped by Maoist violence.

A government offensive was launched last year to tackle the insurgency, but since then the Maoists have launched a series of bold and bloody attacks, including the massacre of 76 policemen in April. AFP

Published in the Express Tribune, June 17^th, 2010.