Suspected Maoists kill 29 police in India

By Harmeet Shah Singh
CNN

NEW DELHI, India (CNN) – At least 29 police officers were killed and three were injured in an ambush by suspected Maoists in eastern India, authorities said.

The fatalities included the police superintendent of Chhattisgarh state's Rajnandgaon district, said Rohit Yadav, a top district official.

The ambush Sunday occurred when the force was crossing a thick forest, according to Rajnandgaon district officials.

There was no immediate information about the total number of officers attacked.

The Maoists - known as the Naxalites - have said they are fighting for the rights of the poor and the dispossessed who have not benefitted from the state's resources.

The insurgency grew out of a peasant uprising in 1967.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has described the Maoists as the biggest threat to India's internal security. Federal and state authorities have struggled to come up with a strategy to battle the guerrillas.