At least 16 Maoist militants were killed in firefights with police in the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh, officials said Friday.
Armed cadres of the outlawed Communist Party of India-Maoist exchanged fire with police in the forested Gollapalli region in Dantewada district, 450 kilometres south of state capital Raipur, late Thursday night.
"Police teams were on search operations to track down the militants when they came under indiscriminate fire. At the end of a three-hour operation, 15 bodies of the rebels were found at the scene," Pawan Deo, Dantewada's deputy inspector general, said.
Three policemen were also wounded in the firefight, police said.
"It is a major success in the region which is a hotbed of Maoist militancy. We have also recovered automatic rifles and ammunition from Gollapalli," Deo said.
In another incident, police killed a Maoist rebel in an encounter in neighbouring Bijapur area.
Chhattisgarh police estimate that roughly 10,000 rebels operate in the Bastar region, an area comprising the southern part of Chhattisgarh including Dantewada, which is among the regions worst-affected by the Maoist insurgency.
Maoist militants, who claim to be fighting for the rural poor, operate in 13 of India' s 29 states and Maoist violence has been reported from 170 of the total 600 districts in the country.
According to independent estimates, more than 600 people - including civilians, police and rebels - were killed in Maoist violence in India in 2008.
