Maoist rebels kill 19, including Congress leader in India attack

PanARMENIAN.Net - Suspected Maoist rebels killed at least 19 people when they ambushed a convoy carrying regional leaders from India's ruling Congress party in dense forest on Saturday, May 25 officials said, one of the deadliest such attacks in recent years, Reuters reported.

The rebels felled trees to block the 20-car convoy in the eastern state of Chhattisgarh and then detonated a landmine and raked the vehicles with gunfire, Indian media reported.

Among those killed was Mahendra Karma, a senior Congress leader from Chhattisgarh who founded an anti-Maoist group and was believed to be the main target of the attack. The state's Congress party leader and his son were also killed.

Senior Chhattisgarh police official Mukesh Gupta told Reuters by telephone six policemen were among the dead and that 35 people were also wounded in the ambush.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh condemned the attack and said his government would take firm action. Singh, who flew to Chhattisgarh with Congress party chief Sonia Gandhi on Sunday, has called the Maoists the greatest domestic threat to India.

The rebels, also known as Naxals, have fought for decades in a wide swathe of central and eastern India, including many resource-rich regions where tensions run high between poor farmers and industrial developers.

Maoists say they are fighting for the rights of poor farmers and landless laborers. Thousands have been killed in the insurgency since the late 1960s.