Maoist rebels set off a land mine in central India on Monday, killing at least four policemen and injuring seven others, police said. The rebels, who claim to be inspired by Chinese revolutionary leader Mao Zedong, targeted an anti-land mine vehicle carrying 11 troops, top local police officer R.K. Vij told reporters. The ambushed policemen were patrolling in the Dantewada district of Chhattisgarh state to provide security for a government road project. Yesterday’s attack is the fourth in the last three days, raising the number of killed policemen to 12. On Saturday seven security officials were killed in nearby Sukma district when rebels opened fire on patrolling troops. In two separate attacks one soldier was shot to death and several mining vehicles set on fire on Sunday. Few details were available about yesterday’s attack because the massive explosion also destroyed the local cell phone tower, Sunita Sahu, an official at the Dantewada police control room, said. Those wounded in the attack have been airlifted to a hospital in the state capital of Raipur.
Pakistan | Troops kill 13 suspects behind deadly dam attack
Pakistani troops have killed 13 members of a militant group that claimed responsibility for a weekend attack on a dam project in the southwestern Baluchistan province that left 20 construction workers dead, an army spokesman said yesterday. The soldiers conducted an operation in the Gobdan area of the Turbat district in the province, about 400 kilometers south of the provincial capital of Quetta, searching for “terrorists who massacred” the workers, said Abdul Wasay, spokesman for the paramilitary Frontier Corps. The operation followed the attack on Saturday, when militants stormed a labor camp near the dam construction site, overpowering eight security guards who then took off and ran for their lives, and shooting dead sleeping laborers before fleeing the scene. The Baluch Liberation Front claimed responsibility for the attack shortly afterward. It is one among several nationalist and separatist groups behind a low-level insurgency in Baluchistan demanding a greater shareof gas and mineral revenue for the Baluch minority and complete autonomy from Islamabad. The Baluch separatists have fought against the Islamabad-based government for years in the region, where also other Islamic extremist groups are active.
No Comments