9 Maoists shot in Andhra

HYDERABAD:  Police shot dead nine Maoist rebels, including six women, on Friday after the guerrillas attacked a jungle patrol.   

The gun battle took place in the forests of Cudappah in Andhra Pradesh state, about 425 km south of Hyderabad, Y. Nagi Reddy, a top police officer, said.   

State police chief Swaranjit Sen said 21 Maoists had managed to escape after the gun battle. Police had seized dozens of rockets, several mines, guns, ammunition and Maoist literature, he added.   

Maoists, who hold sway over vast tracts of the countryside in the east, south and centre, claim to fight for the rights of poor peasants and landless labourers.

Their main targets are security forces and political opponents.  Their revolt has been going on for three decades now and, in Andhra Pradesh, nearly 600 people -- about 300 Maoists, 250 civilians and 50 policemen -- have been killed in clashes since January 2005 when a truce collapsed.   

In the neighbouring state of Chhattisgarh, the bullet-ridden bodies of two of 40 villagers reported kidnapped by Maoists were found in the forests of rebel-infested Bastar region, the state's interior minister said.   

The villagers, belonging to a government-sponsored anti-Maoist movement called Salwa Judum (Campaign for Peace), were seized earlier this week.