12 policemen die in Maoist attack in Chattisgarh

    Raipur (Chattisgarh)/ Vishakhapatnam: Maoist rebels have killed 12 policemen and injured a dozen more in two separate attacks in Chattisgarh. The rebels set off a powerful landmine under the van of a patrol party in Dantewada district, 480 km south of Raipur yesterday, killing nine policemen and injuring eight others.

   In another incident, Maoists raided a police station in Jashpur district, about 450 km north of Raipur, and shot dead three policemen and wounded five. The injured were rushed to Vishakhapatnam in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh, which was the nearest big town to the site of the attack. "Total nine patients were admitted yesterday around 7 p.m. (local time). Of them, two are seriously injured. Other seven have received minor injuries. We have discharged two-three patients today and rest will be discharged tomorrow," said L. Ratnakar Roa, physician at a state-run hospital. The Maoists, who have a strong presence in many of the state's 16 districts, have stepped up violent attacks in the past several days, police said. Last week, they killed eight civilians in an attack on a government relief camp for tribal people. Three Maoists were also killed when police returned fire. More than 9,000 Maoist rebels operate in at least nine States, mainly in the country's east and south, officials say. Maoists, who hold sway over vast rural areas of eastern and southern India, claim they are fighting for the rights of landless labourers and poor peasants, many of them tribesmen. Most of the times, their main targets are police and paramilitary forces.

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