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Dozens of Maoist Maoists killed in Indian shooting | Conflict News

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Three special commandos were also wounded in the dense forests of Gadchiroli district for long hours.

At least 26 Maoist Maoists have been killed in a shootout in a remote forest with Indian government forces, the media reported on the latest clashes in a long-running armed conflict.

Police said three commandos were seriously injured on Saturday in dense forests in the Gadchiroli district, 1,000 km (620 miles) east of Mumbai, the capital of Maharashtra state, for hours. They were flown to Nagpur to receive treatment.

Gadchiroli is one of the eleven Maoist sites rich in minerals in central and eastern India, where tens of thousands of fighters are fighting against government forces.

Police said the shooting exploded after special police commands intercepted a rebel group in the Mardintola forest.

“At least 26 naxals have been killed,” a Maharashtra police officer told AFP news agency on condition of anonymity, using the local term for left-wing rebels.

The Maoists are known as the Naxalites because the leftist uprising began in 1967 in the village of Naxalbari in the eastern state of West Bengal.

The officer said special forces were still conducting a search operation in the area, amid targeted shootings.

Police Chief Ankit Goyal Gadchiroli also said that 26 bodies have been recovered so far in the online edition of the Indian Express newspaper.

“The exact number of dead and their identity will be known after the body is recovered,” he added.

One of the dead was suspected to be a rebel leader, home media reported.

The deadly Gadchiroli clash is the latest in a long Maoist armed campaign in India that began in the 1960s and has claimed thousands of lives.

The government has deployed tens of thousands of forces to fight the rebels in a region called the “Red Corridor,” which extends across several central, southern and eastern states.

They say the conflict with the Maoists defends the rights of indigenous tribes and other marginalized groups. One of the oldest in India and affects large areas of the country.

Since 1967 it began as an armed peasant uprising in the town of Naxalbari in the eastern state of West Bengal and has killed tens of thousands of people and displaced many others.

According to the South Asian Terrorism Portal, 10,901 people have been killed, including civilians, rebels and security personnel, in violence related to Maoists in India since 2000.



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