Icewolf
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Maoist rebels kill 17 in central India ambush: police
(AFP) – 4 minutes ago
RAIPUR, India — Heavily-armed Maoist rebels on Saturday killed 17 people, including 12 local Congress leaders, after ambushing a convoy in a remote tribal belt of central India, a top police officer said.
"We can confirm 17 deaths. Among those who have been killed are five policemen. The rest are all leaders of the state Congress unit," Rajinder Kumar Vij, the chief of anti-naxal operations of Chhattisgrah state, told AFP.
The whereabouts of state Congress chief Nand Kumar Patel and his son who were abducted during the attack were not known, Vij added.
Former cabinet minister Vidya Charan Shukla was fighting for life after being wounded in the attack, carried out in a thickly forested area of Jagdalpur district, 284 kilometres (176 miles) from state capital Raipur.
The rebels detonated a bomb before firing indiscriminately at the convoy, which was returning from a political rally nearby, police said.
The attack is the latest in a simmering conflict that pits the insurgents against local and national authorities in the forests and rural areas of mainly central and eastern India.
The guerrillas, who say they are fighting for the rights of tribal people and landless farmers, often collect funds through extortion and protection rackets.
Congress chief Sonia Gandhi condemned the incident as "shocking" and said the party was pained by the attack on its colleagues.
"Naturally we are devastated... It is despicable that ordinary people engaged in political activity were attacked," she told reporters in New Delhi after an emergency meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
Singh, who has described the Maoists as the country's most serious internal security threat, spoke to state Chief Minister Raman Singh and promised him all "necessary aid".
AFP: Maoist rebels kill 17 in central India ambush: police
TTP style attack on political party in India?
(AFP) – 4 minutes ago
RAIPUR, India — Heavily-armed Maoist rebels on Saturday killed 17 people, including 12 local Congress leaders, after ambushing a convoy in a remote tribal belt of central India, a top police officer said.
"We can confirm 17 deaths. Among those who have been killed are five policemen. The rest are all leaders of the state Congress unit," Rajinder Kumar Vij, the chief of anti-naxal operations of Chhattisgrah state, told AFP.
The whereabouts of state Congress chief Nand Kumar Patel and his son who were abducted during the attack were not known, Vij added.
Former cabinet minister Vidya Charan Shukla was fighting for life after being wounded in the attack, carried out in a thickly forested area of Jagdalpur district, 284 kilometres (176 miles) from state capital Raipur.
The rebels detonated a bomb before firing indiscriminately at the convoy, which was returning from a political rally nearby, police said.
The attack is the latest in a simmering conflict that pits the insurgents against local and national authorities in the forests and rural areas of mainly central and eastern India.
The guerrillas, who say they are fighting for the rights of tribal people and landless farmers, often collect funds through extortion and protection rackets.
Congress chief Sonia Gandhi condemned the incident as "shocking" and said the party was pained by the attack on its colleagues.
"Naturally we are devastated... It is despicable that ordinary people engaged in political activity were attacked," she told reporters in New Delhi after an emergency meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
Singh, who has described the Maoists as the country's most serious internal security threat, spoke to state Chief Minister Raman Singh and promised him all "necessary aid".
AFP: Maoist rebels kill 17 in central India ambush: police
TTP style attack on political party in India?
