landmine blast in India

Indian Maoists killed 15 policemen on Tuesday in a landmine blast. The blast took place in the centre of the country, an official said, marking the deadliest attack by the left-wing rebels since June 2010. The strike, which occurred in Maharashtra state, is the latest incident in the low-intensity conflict that pits the insurgents against local and national authorities in the forests and villages of central and eastern India. "Fifteen CRPF (Central Reserve Police Force) are dead. The attack happened around 11.30 am (0600 GMT) when the bus carrying them struck an IED (improvised explosive device)," CRPF spokesman B.C. Khanduri told AFP. "The injured are now being taken to hospital. We don t have an exact estimate for the number of injured yet." The attack occurred in Gadchiroli district, about 1,000 kilometres (620 miles) from the state capital Mumbai and close to the state border with Chhattisgarh, a hotbed of Maoist activity. The head of anti-Maoist operations in Chhattisgarh, Ramniwas, who uses one name, told AFP that 12 were dead and 25 were injured -- the latest victims in a decades-long conflict that has costs tens of thousands of lives. The attack comes in the same month that Maoists took two Italians and a local Indian lawmaker hostage in two separate incidents in the eastern state of Orissa, one of several areas where Maoists control much of the countryside. Before the kidnappings -- the first to target foreigners -- the Maoists had been on a tactical retreat, according to analysts, but Tuesday s strike will reinforce suggestions that the rebels are swinging back into action. One of the Italians was released on Sunday, and the following day Indian government officials resumed talks with representatives of the rebels, who had issued a series of demands for the Europeans  release. The guerrillas, who say they are fighting for the rights of tribal people and landless farmers, have a powerful influence over large areas of central and eastern India, collecting funds through extortion and protection rackets. The Maoist insurgency, which began in 1967, has been described by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as the country s biggest internal security threat and has been targeted since 2009 in a government offensive known as "Operation Greenhunt." But the often poorly-trained police have faced a series of strikes as they attempt to fend off the rebels. In January, a landmine attack in eastern India killed at least 12 policemen and injured three others who were trapped by the Maoists in their vehicle in a forested area of Jharkhand state, according to authorities. In June 2010, the rebels killed 26 police officers in an ambush in Chhattisgarh, two months after an assault in the same state that left 76 policemen dead.