Indian security forces have killed at least 12 Maoist rebels as part of their increased attempts to put an end to the long-running rebellion.
Police said on Friday that the operation began on Thursday in the district of Bijapur in the state of Chhattisgarh, which is known as the rebellion’s centre because of its forests.
“We have heard that 12 Maoists were killed in clashes with security forces,” Sundarraj P, a senior police officer, told the AFP news agency. An Indian news source called Hindustan Times said that 17 people had died and that at least 3,000 police officers had been working on the operation since Wednesday night.
According to The Indian Express newspaper, police in Chhattisgarh’s Sukma district killed at least three Maoist rebels last week. One of them was an explosives expert who was thought to be responsible for the deaths of several security staff.
India’s Interior Minister Amit Shah said last year that the government planned to put down the rebellion by 2026.
According to government figures, security forces have killed more than 200 rebels in the past year. Most of them were in Chhattisgarh.
The uprising has been going on for decades and has killed more than 10,000 people. The rebels say they are fighting for the rights of Indigenous people who have been pushed to the edges of society.
Over the years of the conflict, there have been many attacks on government troops that have killed people.
A roadside bomb killed at least nine Indian police earlier this month. After a week, Indian troops killed at least five fighters and two police officers were hurt by a different bomb.
When police and army members fought with far-left rebels with guns in 2021, 22 of them were killed.
During the 2019 elections, at least 16 soldiers were killed in a bomb attack in Maharashtra, a western state. The attack was blamed on the Maoists.
