Three Indian security forces personnel died on Friday when their vehicle ran over a landmine and then came under attack by suspected Maoist rebels in the state of Chhattisgarh, police said.
“Three security personnel were killed and one seriously injured in an ambush in Dantewada district,” chief of anti-Maoist operations in the state, Ramniwas, who uses one name, told AFP. “After triggering a powerful land mine blast, the Maoists started indiscriminate firing on the convoy of three security vehicles and the gun battle lasted for over an hour this morning,” he said. The dead men were part of a 20,000-strong central paramilitary police force active in deeply impoverished Chhattisgarh and were on an operation 380 kilometres south of state capital Raipur when the clash took place. Violence by Maoist rebels in 2010 left a record 1,169 people dead, according to federal government figures.
