At least nine Maoists and a soldier were killed Friday when Indian troops launched a major offensive against a rebel stronghold in the central state of Chhattisgarh, an official said. State police chief R. K. Vij put the toll at 10 but others said that more casualties were likely after an intense firefight in the jungles of Singamadagu district, 500 kilometres (300 miles) south of the capital Raipur.
"Nine Maoists and an assistant commandant have died and five troopers are missing," Vij told AFP. NDTV television reported that 30 Maoists had been killed and 10 soldiers were missing, though these figures could not be independently verified. Other security officials in Raipur told AFP up to 250 troopers drawn from police, paramilitary and commando units were involved in the offensive in Singamadagu, where phone communication is virtually non-existent.
Maoists hold sway across wide swathes of impoverished Chhattisgarh, the worst hit by a leftwing insurgency which has spread to 20 of India's 29 states, according to Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram. Police chief Vij said the deputy commander died when the Maoists retaliated after security forces raided a rebel arms factory in Singamadagu, where the guerrillas have virtually established a parallel administration.
Chidambaram told police chiefs this week that the guerillas, whose leadership is based in the Chhattisgarh forests, were refining their tactics and acquiring advanced military hardware. In June, Chidambaram slapped a formal ban on the Maoist rebels, whose strength is variously estimated at between 10,000 and 20,000, officially designating them as "terrorists." The skirmish erupted days after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh rebuked the police chiefs for failing to tackle the insurgency, which started as a peasant uprising in 1967.
"I would like to say frankly that we have not achieved as much success as we would have liked in containing this menace," Singh told the police conference on Tuesday. The rebels say they are fighting for the rights of neglected tribespeople and landless farmers as well as against exploitation by feudal landlords. Last year Singh described the Maoist insurgency as the single largest threat to India's security.
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