At least 11 special police personnel were killed and 10 injured in a landmine blast triggered overnight by suspected Maoist rebels in the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh, police said Sunday. The attack took place late Saturday when a Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) team was patrolling the Pushpal Road area, 500 kilometres (310 miles) from the state capital Raipur and a hotbed of rebel activity.
T.G. Landkumer, a senior police officer in the state, told AFP the CRPF men had gone to the area to investigate reports that suspected Maoists had blown up some vehicles ferrying workers engaged in road construction. "The men were on their way back when their vehicle ran over a landmine," Landkumer said.
The killings came amid efforts by Indian security forces to quell a Maoist-led uprising in the eastern state of West Bengal, where security forces are battling to retake control of hundreds of villages. Indian Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram said the situation in the Lalgarh area, 130 kilometres (80 miles) from West Bengal's state capital Kolkata, was "sensitive and continues to be tense".
"Security forces must carry on their work without distraction. Hence, I appeal to all citizens ... not to go to the conflict area," he said. In Kolkata, senior state police officer Raj Kanojia said security personnel were still trying to evict the rebels from an area of more than 1,000 square kilometres (390 square miles).
"The Lalgarh police station, captured on Saturday, will be used as base camp to fight the Maoists. It's a long term operation," he said. India's Maoists say they are fighting for the rights of neglected tribal people and landless farmers.
Based in the dense forests of Chhattisgarh, the ultra-leftist rebels have found a fertile recruiting ground among villagers and farmers. The insurgency, which grew out of a peasant uprising in 1967, is active in more than half of the country's 29 states with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh describing it as the single largest threat to India's security.