Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

14 Maoist rebels killed in India raid

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NEW DELHI — Government forces killed at least 14 Maoist rebels during a raid on their hideout Sunday in western India, police said.

The fighting began after police commandos raided the rebels’ hideout deep in a forest in Gadchiroli district in Maharashtr­a state, said police officer Prashant Diwate.

Diwate said exchange of gunfire between the rebels and troops lasted about half an hour. He said police were searching the area for more possible bodies.

He said police suffered no casualties.

The Maoist rebels, who claim inspiratio­n from Chinese revolution­ary leader Mao Zedong, have been fighting the Indian government for more than four decades, demanding land and jobs for tenant farmers and the poor.

The rebels, also known as Naxalites, have ambushed police, destroyed government offices and abducted government officials for decades in their fight against the Indian government. They have blown up train tracks, attacked prisons to free their comrades and stolen weapons from police and paramilita­ry warehouses.

The insurgency began in 1967 as a network of leftwing ideologues and young recruits in the village of Naxalbari outside Kolkata, the capital of West Bengal state.

In their deadliest attack, rebels in 2010 killed 76 soldiers in Chhattisga­rh, one of the most-affected states.

The government has called the rebels India’s biggest internal security threat. With thousands of fighters, the rebels control vast swaths of the country.

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