Ten policemen killed and dismembered by Maoists

GARIYABAND: Ten policemen, including one senior officer, have been killed and dismembered by Maoist rebels in India’s Chhattisgarh state, said police.

According to reports, the attack took place in the densely-forested Gariyaband area on the state’s border with Orissa. On Tuesday the bodies of nine policemen were found. Officials say they were shot and then hacked into pieces.

A team of police men left for a routine patrol on Monday morning and lost contact in the afternoon. After their bodies were discovered on Tuesday, officials said the policemen were first shot and then their bodies were hacked into pieces “by sharp-edged weapons”. Correspondents say that certain groups of Maoists have been known to dismember the bodies of their victims.

Inquiry has been launched to find out how such a small number of police ventured into Gariyaband, which is considered to be a Maoist stronghold.

In one of the most deadly attacks last year, rebels killed 74 policemen in Chhattisgarh’s Dantewada district. Maoist rebels say they are fighting for the rights of indigenous tribal people and the rural poor. They are active in several eastern and central states.

India’s Maoist insurgency began in the late 1960s, in the remote forests of West Bengal state. PM has described the Maoist insurgency as the country’s biggest internal security challenge.