22 Indian troopers killed in Maoist rebel ambush

A paramilitary soldier injured in a gunbattle with Maoist rebels on Saturday is brought for treatment at a hospital in Raipur, India, Sunday, April 4, 2021. India on Sunday recovered the bodies of 22 police and paramilitary troops who were killed in a gunbattle with Maoist rebels a day earlier in the forests of the eastern Chhattisgarh state. - AP

NEW DELHI, April 4 (dpa): At least 22 security personnel had been killed in a gun battle with Maoist rebels in the forests of the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh, police said on Sunday.

The gun battle lasted more than three hours on Saturday after multiple teams of paramilitary troops and police commandos launched an operation to weed out rebels in the forests of southern Bastar region known to be a Maoist stronghold, Chhattisgarh deputy chief minister Tamradhwaj Sahu said.