Four killed in Maoist attack in eastern India

Jan 23, 2010, 12:48 GMT

New Delhi - Suspected Maoist rebels blew up a police jeep in India's eastern state of Orissa on Saturday, killing four people and injuring eight, news reports said.

The rebels triggered a landmine under a jeep carrying 10 policemen and some civilians, near Pallur village in Koraput district, about 500 kilometres south-west of state capital Bhubaneswar, IANS news agency reported.

The policemen were returning to their camp after conducting search operations in the area.

Four civilians were killed in the blast. All the policemen were safe, although eight of them sustained minor injuries, deputy inspector general of police Sanjeev Panda was quoted as saying.

The attack came a day after federal Home Minister P Chidambaram held a meeting at Raipur, capital of Orissa's adjoining state Chhattisgarh, to assess ongoing anti-Maoist operations.

Late on Friday, a group of armed Maoist rebels damaged telecom mobile towers of in Orissa's Malkangiri district.

The activists blasted the equipment box and burnt the generator sets of mobile telephony towers towers, disrupting telecommunication network in the area.

The special operations against Maoist rebels were aimed at regaining lost areas and reasserting the authority of the civil administration, Chidambaram had said at a press briefing in Raipur Friday.

'The coordinated operation (against Maoists) is just a few weeks old ... In many places Naxalites are retreating and we welcome it. But in some areas they are engaged in battle,' Chidambaram said.

Maoist rebels are called Naxalites in India after Naxalbari village in northern West Bengal state where the movement first appeared in the 1960s.

The meeting in Raipur focused on devising strategies to fine-tune anti-Maoist operations and take the battle to rebel hideouts in forests, IANS reported. Many of the hideouts have been protected by landmines for almost three decades.

The Maoist rebels claim they are leading an armed rebellion to secure the rights of the poor and marginalized. They operate in some of India's poorest districts, especially forested land populated by tribal people that has seen little development.

More than 2,700 people - including civilians, security personnel and rebels - have been killed in incidents related to Maoist violence in India since 2006, according to the Home Ministry.