PATNA, India, 9 October 2005 — Fifteen policemen died when a police vehicle drove over a land mine in eastern India yesterday, police said.
Maoist rebels were suspected to have planted the mine on a road leading to Baniadih, a remote village in Jharkhand state, police superintendent Sudarshan Mandal said.
At least 15 policemen, including two senior officers, died in the explosion, Mandal said. He said the policemen were about to raid a village where rebels were believed to be hiding when the explosion happened.
There were no immediate claims of responsibility for the attack.
Earlier in the week, police and paramilitary soldiers launched an operation against rebels operating in the state, Mandal said.
Senior police officers have gone to the spot. Two choppers have been sent to Chatra from Ranchi, the state capital, to bring the injured for treatment as well as the bodies of the deceased.
The attack comes weeks after the rebels killed 15 villagers, mostly former comrades and police informers, in the state.
Thousands have died in almost four decades of Maoist violence across nine Indian states. Rebels, mostly operating out of jungle bases, have killed politicians and policemen and blasted factories and government offices.
The rebels say they are fighting for the rights of peasants and landless laborers in the country’s rural hinterland, often holding their own courts to resolve disputes and killing officials they believe are corrupt.
In August, India’s Home Ministry said there were about 9,300 armed Maoist rebels in the country. Officials say rebels have joined hands with Maoists fighting to overthrow monarchy in neighboring Nepal.
India said Friday that it had doubled the number of troops on its porous border with Nepal to stop the deadly Maoist insurgency in the Himalayan kingdom from spilling over.
The comment by Sri Prakash Jaiswal, minister of state for home, came after an announcement by the Maoists fighting the constitutional monarchy in Nepal that they would work with radical leftists on the Indian side in their campaign to promote communism in the region.
“We are always worried about any violent groups becoming stronger in any of our neighboring countries,” Jaiswal told Reuters.
“On the India-Nepal border, we have increased the number of security posts and doubled the strength of the force but we want Nepal to solve its problem,” he addded. The number of troops guarding the border is now expected to rise to around 45,000.
India and Nepal share a 1,750-km border, with residents needing no visa to cross.
More than 12,500 people have died since the Maoists launched their campaign in 1996 to install communist rule in Nepal. They now control a vast swathe of the countryside.
