NEW DELHI: Indian security forces killed a top Maoist commander and two other rebels in a gunbattle on Monday, officials said, as the government intensifies efforts to crush the decades-long conflict.
India is waging an all-out offensive against the last remaining traces of the Naxalite rebellion, named after the village in the foothills of the Himalayas where the Maoist-inspired guerrilla movement began nearly six decades ago.
More than 12,000 rebels, soldiers and civilians have been killed since a handful of villagers rose up against their feudal lords there in 1967.
The latest gunbattle took place early Monday in the mineral-rich eastern state of Jharkhand, India’s Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) said in a statement.
The federal police described the operation as a “major breakthrough.”
