Indian commandos kill 10 Maoist rebels

RAIPUR, India: Indian security forces gunned down at least 10 Maoist rebels on Friday during a firefight, police said, as New Delhi steps up efforts to crush the long-running armed conflict.

More than 10,000 people have died in the decades-long insurgency waged by the Naxalite movement, who say they are fighting for the rights of marginalised Indigenous people of India´s remote and resource-rich central regions.

The gun battle took place in a remote forested area of Chhattisgarh state, the heartland of the insurgency.

“Dead bodies of 10 Maoists have been recovered so far,” Vivekanand Sinha, chief of the state police´s anti-Maoist operations, told AFP.