Security forces in the central state of Chhattisgarh were conducting an operation against the left-wing insurgent group in the state’s Bastar division when one of the teams was attacked by the insurgents, Chhattisgarh police chief DM Awasthi said Sunday.
Searches for a missing security member are still ongoing in the area, Awasthi added.
The government has been engaged in decades of conflict with Maoist rebel groups, known as Naxals, who are attacking government forces in an attempt to overthrow the state and usher in a classless society. Maoists are largely active in central India, in regions populated mainly by indigenous tribes.
Militant attacks in various states, including Maharashtra, Odisha and Chhattisgarh, where the rebel movement is still in control, are common.
The Bastard Division, where Sunday’s battle took place, includes the Sukma-Bijapur border areas – an area considered one of the most important Maoist strongholds.
Naxalite groups have been active in the country since the 1960s, but the modern uprising did not start until the early 2000s. Former Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh described the Maoist rebels – who are well organized and trained – as the ‘greatest threat to the country’s internal security.
More than 2,100 civilians have been killed in the Maoist uprising in India since 2010.
In April 2017, 25 police officers were killed and six others injured when hundreds of alleged Maoist rebels attacked a convoy in central India.
Suspected Maoists also struck in India’s 2019 elections, reportedly shooting down a polling station in the eastern state of Odisha. In another incident in the same district that year, alleged Maoists approached a vehicle headed for a polling station and forced officials to disembark before setting it on fire.
According to a 2019 report from the Indian Ministry of the Interior, 90 districts in 11 states are affected by some form of Naxal, or Maoist militancy.
The government has responded to the Maoist uprising with a security crackdown in areas where the groups operate, an approach that, while appearing to reduce threat levels, has been criticized by some observers as being brutal and prone to abuse.