The death toll from yesterday's attack on policemen in eastern India by Maoist rebels rose to 24 after officials found seven more bodies, Agence-France Presse reported, citing the inspector-general of police for West Bengal state.
Maoists riding motorcycles fired on the policemen and exploded landmines in one of the biggest attacks on security forces since July last year, AFP said. About 100 communist rebels, who stole weapons from a security post in Shilda village 170 kilometres southwest of Kolkata, attacked the police camp, according to the Associated Press.
The assault came as security forces advance a campaign to flush out the rebels from their strongholds in eastern India, AFP reported.
The Maoists, active in at least 11 of India's 28 states, are also known as Naxalites after the village in West Bengal where impoverished villagers staged an uprising against landowners in 1967. They have waged a campaign of violence against the government, police and landowners for four decades.
Bloomberg