At least 22 Maoist rebels were killed in the jungles of the center of India on Thursday in one of the most mortal clashes since the government increased efforts to crush the long -standing insurgency.
More than 10,000 people have been killed in the “Naxalita” rebellion of decades, whose members say they are fighting for the rights of marginalized people in the central regions rich in resources of India.
An Indian paramilitary soldier was also killed in one of the two separate skirmishes that exploded in the state of Chhattisgarh, which continued during the day, according to the police.
“22 Naxalites were killed in 2 separate operations from our security forces,” wrote Amit Shah, Minister of the Indian Interior, on the social media platform X, using the common Indian name for the insurgent movement.
Police said the soldier had been killed during a skirmish that exploded shortly after dawn in the Bijapur district, where 18 guerrillas had also died.
Four other rebels were killed in a separate clash in the south of the state. The searches continued on both battle sites, with security forces that recovered cache of weapons and ammunition from both areas.
“The Government (Narendra) Modi is advancing with a ruthless approach against the Naxalites and is adopting a zero tolerance policy against those Naxalites that are not surrendering,” Shah wrote on the social media platform X.
The rebels, known as Naxalitas after the district where their armed campaign began in 1967, were inspired by the Chinese revolutionary leader Mao Zedong.
Shah has repeatedly promised that the government of India would crush the remains of the rebellion at the end of March next year.
A repression of security forces killed around 287 rebels last year, an overwhelming majority of them in Chhattisgarh, according to government data.
More than 80 Maoists had already been killed so far this year, according to an account on Sunday by the press agency of Trust of India.
Maoists demand land, jobs and part of the immense natural resources of the region for local residents.
They made raids into several remote communities throughout the east and south of India, and the movement gained strength and numbers until the early 2000s.
New Delhi then deployed tens of thousands of troops in a stretch of territory known as the “Red Corridor”.
The conflict has also seen dozens of mortal attacks against government forces. A bomb on the road killed at least nine Indian troops in January.
