(Reuters) – At least 22 members of the Indian security forces have been killed in a central Indian state by Maoist fighters, in one of the bloodiest attacks by the extreme left-wing insurgent group this year, officials said on Sunday.
Security personnel from the elite CoBRA unit of the Central Reserve Police Force, the District Reserve Guard, and the Special Task Force were attacked during an anti-insurgency operation in the state-dominated Chhattisgarh state on Saturday.
“We can confirm that 22 of the Indian forces were killed by Maoist fighters,” said a senior government official in Raipur, the capital of the mineral-rich Chhattisgarh.
They were killed in a four-hour shooting in the Sukma border district, 540 km south of Raipur.
To Prakash Pal, a senior police officer in Raipur, said operations are being carried out to comb combs to locate one missing member of the security force.
The death toll was the heaviest for Indian security forces fighting the left-wing guerrillas since 2017.
Interior Minister Amit Shah said the government would not tolerate such bloodshed and an appropriate response would be given to prevent such attacks. ‘
The Maoists, also known as the Naxals, have been waging an armed uprising against the government for decades. Leaders of the hardly left-wing militant group say they are fighting on behalf of the poorest, who have not benefited from a long economic boom in Asia’s third largest economy.
Since 1967, the group considered the biggest threat to the country’s internal security has exercised control over large tracts of land in the Central and East Indies and established a so-called ‘red corridor’.
The militant group works from dense forests and their operations against the Indian government and forces are shrouded in mystery. The group did not accept responsibility for the latest attack.
Hours after the attack, Prime Minister Narendra Modi wrote on Twitter that the “sacrifices of the brave martyrs will never be forgotten. May the injured recover soon. ”
Last month, five policemen were killed and several others injured in an explosion in what police say was a Mao strike aimed at a bus carrying more than 20 security personnel.
Reporting by Saurabh Sharma in Lucknow and Jatindra Dash in Bhubaneswar; Writing by Abhirup Roy, Rupam Jain; Edited by William Mallard and Hugh Lawson