RAIPUR, India: Indian security forces killed 14 Maoist rebel fighters Saturday (Jan 3) in two clashes, police said, as New Delhi steps up efforts to quash the long-running insurgency in the country's central regions.
More than 10,000 people have died in the decades-long rebellion waged by Naxalite rebels, who say they are fighting for the rights of marginalised indigenous people in resource-rich central India.
The government has been cracking down on the remnants of the group, named after the village in the Himalayan foothills where the Maoist-inspired insurgency began nearly six decades ago.
The rebels were shot dead in the central state of Chhattisgarh in the early hours of Saturday.
"In two separate incidents of encounters 14 Maoists were killed," Chhattisgarh Police said in a statement, with the clashes taking place in the districts of Sukma and Bijapur.
Ammunition and assault rifles were seized, it added.
Authorities have repeatedly vowed to completely finish the insurgency by the end of March.
The Naxalite rebellion once held sway across nearly a third of the country, with an estimated 15,000 to 20,000 fighters at its peak in the mid-2000s, but it has been dramatically weakened in recent years.
India's security forces say a swathe of the top leadership has been killed and more than 500 Maoist rebels have been killed in Chhattisgarh since 2024, according to government figures. - AFP
