SANA

RAIPUR: A landmine believed to have been planted by Maoists in the central Indian state of Chattisgarh killed at least 12 policemen, an official said, the latest in a series of violent rebel attacks in the country.

Eleven policemen were also injured in the blast late on Saturday in Tongapal, 500 kilometres south of the state capital Raipur, said TJ Longkumer, an inspector general of police.

Gunfire: Seven of the rebels were killed in an exchange of gunfire after the blast, which hit a truck in which about 40 security personnel were travelling, he said.

Extra forces have been rushed to the site but their movements were limited in the heavily forested area, Longkumar said.

Maoists, who say they are fighting for the rights of poor farmers and landless labourers, are expanding their influence in the rural areas of east, central and southern India.

Also on Saturday, police in West Bengal state said they had regained control of a town captured by Maoist rebels in one of the most brazen attacks in recent years. Thousands have been killed in the Maoist insurgency which began in the late 1960s and which Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has described as one of the gravest threats to India’s internal security.

Troops advance: Meanwhile, after reclaiming control of key Lalgarh police station area, Indian security forces on Sunday pushed deeper to break the Maoist siege of 17 villages considered strongholds of the ultras and tribals backed by them.

Security sources said the troops consisting of CRPF, BSF and West Bengal police started moving from Lalgarh to Ramgarh in an operation aimed at sanitising the main road and other connecting routes and wresting control of the 17 villages. But the 19-km journey from Lalgarh, which the troops reclaimed on Saturday, is likely to be one of the toughest as the road has been mined and the area heavily forested.

The strategy of the forces will focus on wresting control of Barapelia, Chotopelia and Dalilpurchak in West Midnapore district where top Maoist leaders were reportedly holed up, a senior police officers engaged in the operation said.

Barapelia is the home of Maoist-backed People’s Committee against Police Atrocity (PCPA) convener Chatradhar Mahato and the PCPA headquarters.

After a night halt at a school premises in Lalgarh, the joint forces began a mine-clearing exercise on the Lalgarh-Ramgarh road, the sources said. Security forces had moved into Lalgarh and taken control of the police station on Saturday.