NEW DELHI -- At least 11 police officers were killed when their vehicle went over a land mine planted by suspected Maoist rebels in eastern India, an official said Sunday.
Police constable Yashwant, who goes by just one name, said 12 policemen were also wounded in the attack late Saturday in the Dantewada district of Chhattisgarh state.
The troops were part of a patrol, he said, adding that few other details were available from the remote area.
The new attack comes as authorities have sent hundreds of soldiers to try to reclaim a large area captured by Maoist rebels in the nearby state of West Bengal.
A large band of armed rebels moved into the Lalgarh region, a heavily forested part of West Bengal state, earlier this week, driving out poorly armed local police and seizing control of villages in a 20 square-mile area.
On Saturday morning, government troops entered one part of Lalgarh without any resistance, police said.
The state government has vowed to retake the region just 90 miles southwest of Calcutta, the state capital, but said it would attempt to minimize bloodshed.
On Sunday, West Bengal's Inspector General of Police Raj Kanojia said that operations to flush out the rebels were ongoing. He gave no other details.
Government forces had earlier been unable to reach the rebel-held areas because villagers who welcomed the Maoists had blocked the roads, police said.
Local residents, most of them from impoverished indigenous tribes, accuse local government officials of extorting money and harassing them in collusion with police.
The rebels, who say they are inspired by Chinese revolutionary leader Mao Zedong, have been fighting for more than three decades in several Indian states, demanding land and jobs for agricultural laborers and the poor. They frequently target police and government workers.
They are also called Naxalites after Naxalbari, a village in West Bengal where the movement was born in 1967.
by the associated press
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