Maoists kill 24 in 'outrageous' attack on Indian police camp

A STUNNING attack by Maoist rebels that killed at least 24 police officers in eastern India was an outrageous challenge to the state and exposed the insurgents' brutal thirst for power, a top Indian official said yesterday.

• An Indian official inspects a body in a courtyard containing several others covered by blankets, in Sildha, West Midnapore, West Bengal state, yesterday. Picture: Getty Images

The brazen assault – the deadliest rebel attack on police in West Bengal state – came amid a new government crackdown on the Maoists, who are active in 20 of India's 28 states.

More than 100 guerrillas attacked the security outpost, detonating land mines, setting the facility ablaze, killing two dozen police and stealing weapons, said district magistrate NS Nigam.

"The Maoists have the capacity of launching such attacks at will," said Ajai Sahni, executive director of the Institute for Conflict Management.

The violence highlights the growing power of the shadowy rebel group which has an estimated 10,000 to 20,000 fighters.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has said India's biggest internal threat comes from the rebels, who have tapped into the rural poor's growing anger at being left out of the country's economic renaissance.

India's government and various states launched Operation Green Hunt to flush militants out of the forests. In response, the rebels have blown up train tracks, attacked railway stations and assaulted railway employees, home minister Palaniappan Chidambaram said.

In the police base raid late on Monday, attackers rode motorcycles and vehicles into the camp near a bustling market in the village of Shilda, about 105 miles southwest of Calcutta.

"They started hurling grenades into the camp and some tents caught fire," a survivor said.

"There was no time for any of us to react. We were surrounded from all sides," another surviving policeman told the CNN-IBN television channel.

Police reinforcements scoured the area yesterday for the assailants, who fled after the assault, Nigam said.

Kishenji, a top Maoist leader in the area, claimed responsibility in a call to a local television station, saying it was in retaliation for the crackdown.

Mr Chidambaram branded the assault an outrageous challenge to the state.

"Every attack of this kind exposes the true nature and character of the Maoists," he said. "Their goal is to seize power. Their weapon is violence. No organisation or group in a democratic republic has the right to take to violence to overpower the established legal authority."

However, the attacks also exposed the government's inability to seriously damage the rebel group, Mr Sahni said.

"The states, even backed by federal forces, do not really have the capacity to suppress or neutralise these forces," he said.

Inspired by Chinese revolutionary leader Mao Zedong, the rebels have fought for more than four decades demanding land and jobs for farmers and the poor. About 2,000 people – police, militants and civilians – have been killed over the past few years.

India's government has said it is ready to discuss all their demands only if they give up violence.