Nine killed in roadside bomb attack in central India

Police said eight policemen and a driver were killed in bomb blast set off by Maoist rebels in Chhattisgarh.

At least eight policemen and a driver have been killed in central India when a bomb blast set off by Maoist rebels tossed their vehicle into the air, police have said.

The police vehicle in which the victims were travelling was hit by a roadside blast in the Bijapur district of Chhattisgarh state on Monday, a police statement said.

The attack took place as soldiers were returning from an anti-Maoist operation on Saturday, where four rebels and a police officer were killed.

“Eight security forces and a driver were killed today when the vehicle in which they were travelling in came in contact with a landmine,” said Vivekanand Sinha, chief of the state police’s anti-Maoist operations.

Photographs published by Indian media showed a deep crater ripped into the road by the blast.

More than 10,000 people have died in the decades-long conflict waged by the rebels, who say they are fighting to give poor Indian farmers and landless labourers more control over their land currently exploited by major mining companies.

Government forces have stepped up efforts to crush the long-running armed conflict, with some 287 rebels killed in 2024, according to official figures.

The rebels, also known as Naxalites after the district where their armed campaign began in 1967, were inspired by the Chinese revolutionary leader Mao Zedong. About 1,000 suspected Naxalites were arrested and 837 surrendered in 2024.

Amit Shah, India’s interior minister, warned the Maoist rebels in September to surrender or face an “all-out” assault, saying the government expected to crush the rebellion by early 2026.

The movement gained in strength and numbers until the early 2000s when New Delhi deployed tens of thousands of security personnel against the rebels in a stretch of territory known as the “Red Corridor”.

The rebellion has been drastically restricted in area in recent years.

Authorities have since invested millions of dollars in local infrastructure and social projects to combat the Naxalite appeal.