Suspected armed Maoist rebels riding motorcycles on Monday killed 14 policemen in an attack on a security camp in eastern India, police and officials said. Two Maoist guerrillas were also killed following a gunbattle with security forces in West Bengal state's Midnapore district, local administrator N. S. Nigam told AFP.
"Nine policemen were shot dead and five others burnt alive in a fire which started following a landmine blast in their security camp," Nigam said by telephone from Midnapore. The rebel attack came amidst a security offensive in several states to flush out the outlawed insurgents from their strongholds, Indian television reported. Last October, left-wing guerrillas gunned down 17 policemen in western India, one of a series of assaults in an increasingly lethal insurgency.