Communist rebels attacked a police post in the jungles of eastern India today and killed at least 49 officers.
The pre-dawn attack was the latest in a series of increasingly bold assaults by the rebels, who have been fighting for more than two decades in central and eastern India's long-impoverished hinterlands.
Equipped with rifles, hand grenades and homemade petrol bombs, the insurgents appeared to have caught the 79 officers guarding the remote post by surprise. Another 12 officers were wounded in the attack.
The post is located in the state of Chattisgarh, nearly 930 miles southeast of New Delhi.
Before fleeing with weapons stolen from the police post, the attackers scattered land mines around the area, police said.
More than 6,000 people - police, soldiers, and civilians - have been killed since the rebels began their campaign from the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh more than two decades ago.
The rebels, who claim to be inspired by Chinese revolutionary Mao Zedong, demand land and jobs for agricultural labourers and the poor. They are mainly active in six of India's 28 states.
AP
