Indian government troops scoured forests in eastern India for Maoist rebels yesterday and reported killing up to 20 of them since the militants launched a coordinated wave of attacks on government targets late last week.
Three security personnel were also been killed in gunbattles with the rebels, known as the Naxalites, since Saturday evening.
The skirmishes followed the carefully coordinated rebel attacks on Friday night on four police stations, a training academy and an armory in Orissa State's Nayagarh district, that killed 13 police officers, a village guard and a civilian.
"We have received reports of the elimination of 20 Maoists. The reports are being confirmed," T.K. Mishra, home secretary of the Orissa State Government state told reporters on Sunday night. He gave no other details. "We have also lost three security personnel," Mishra added.
The search operations and fighting continued yesterday in forested areas in five districts of the state, said Gopal Chandra Nanda, the director general of the state police.
"We are hopeful of completing the operation very soon, but we'll continue the operation till we get full success," Mishra said yesterday.
About 400 militants took part in the attacks and stole roughly 1,000 weapons, Nanda had said earlier.
The area is about 1,800km southeast of New Delhi.
The guerrillas, who say they are inspired by Chinese communist revolutionary leader Mao Zedong (
They are called Naxalites after Naxalbari, a village in West Bengal State where the movement was born in 1967.
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