Three police officers killed in clash with Maoists in India

Communist insurgents killed three members of India’s security forces and injured 15 in an attack in the eastern state of Chhattisgarh, police said.

The Maoist rebels, also known as Naxalites, have waged an insurgency in large parts of the state and neighbouring regions for decades despite government efforts to bring it to an end.

The rebels claim to be defending the rights of local tribes and the poor.

Police said six rebels were killed in violence on Tuesday.

It happened during an operation carried out by the Commando Battalion for Resolute Action, or Cobra, against the insurgents in the Jonaguda-Aliguda forests.

The Central Reserve Police Force, a special police task force and armed local police were also involved in the operation. “All the soldiers gave a befitting reply … our three jawans – two Cobra jawans and one CRPF jawan – were martyred,” police chief Sundarraj P said.

The area was the site of a deadly attack by Maoists in April 2021, when 23 CRPF personnel were killed.

More than a decade earlier, in April 2010, Maoists killed 76 members of the CRPF in Dantewada, part of southern Chhattisgarh.

Attacks by the Maoists, who control large parts of mineral-rich, forested areas of eastern India, dropped by 77 per cent between 2010 and 2022, while deaths among security forces and civilians fell by 90 per cent in the same period, from 1,005 to 98, Home Ministry figures show.

Last week, India’s Home Affairs Minister Amit Shah called for the insurgents to be driven from the state within three years.