The Maoist insurgency has left a bloody trail as it has spread through India’s so-called “red corridor” from Andhra Pradesh in the south, to Bihar further north.
In the latest attack, 28 people were left dead and many injured Saturday, when suspected Maoists ambushed a convoy carrying local Congress leaders in Chhattisgarh, detonating a landmine and opening fire on the cars.
The Maoists, inspired by Chinese revolutionary leader Mao Zedong, have waged war on the government and security forces for more than four decades, claiming to be fighting for the rights of the tribal people and rural poor who live in remote regions in central and eastern India.
Maoists in India are also known as Naxalites, after Naxalbari — a town in West Bengal where the movement began in the late 1960s.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has described Maoist rebels as the country’s biggest internal security threat.
Here’s a timeline of some of the fatal attacks by suspected Maoist rebels in the last decade:
2005: A landmine blast in the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh killed 24 police in September. As a result the Chhattisgarh government banned Maoist organizations in the state.
In a separate incident, 17 people were killed when Maoist rebels raided a village in the eastern state of Jharkhand. In October, 13 security personnel were killed in a bomb blast in another village in Jharkhand.
2006: The number of killings of unarmed civilians by the Maoists in Chhattisgarh was unprecedented in the state in 2006, according to the Asian Centre for Human Rights, a New Delhi-based advocacy group. On 28 February, Maoists killed 27 people in Monikonta in the state and in April, 15 unarmed villagers were killed after being abducted by Maoists in Errabore.
Thirty three villagers were killed in an attack in another attack in Chhattisgarh in July.
Separately, 14 policemen were killed in a landmine blast in Jharkhand in December.
2007: In March, Maoist rebels killed Indian lawmaker, Sunil Kumar Mahato, of the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha party, and five other people in a shoot out Jharkhand. Ten days later, 55 policemen were killed in a landmine blast in a police camp in Chhattisgarh. In July, 24 policemen and 20 suspected Maoists were killed in a gun battle in Chhattisgarh.
2008: Thirty five security forces were shot dead in the eastern state of Orissa in July. In a separate incident, 17 police officers were killed in a landmine blast in the eastern state. In October, 12 paramilitary policemen died in an ambush by Maoist rebels in Chhattisgarh.
2009: In April, Maoist rebels killed an estimated 17 people and separately took several hundred people hostage on board a train in Jharkhand. In October, they killed 17 policemen in Maharashtra in the west of India.
2010: Maoists killed 76 paramilitary troops in the dense forests of Chhattisgarh in April. This marked the group’s deadliest attack against the Indian government in the four-decades-long insurgency. In May, 26 people on a civilian were killed by a landmine on the road through Dantewada district in Chhattisgarh.
2011: An executive of India’s Reliance Power was shot and killed in crossfire between warring factions of Maoist rebels in Jharkhand in April. One month later, nine policemen were killed by a landmine set by suspected Maoist rebels in Chhattisgarh. In June, Maoist rebels killed 15 policemen in landmine explosions in Chhattisgarh.
In November, Indian police killed a senior Maoist military leader, known as Kishenji, in a fierce gun battle. Kishenji was the rebel group’s military leader and had been in charge of military operations in the eastern regions of Andhra Pradesh in south India, since 2009.
2012: An Indian state legislator was kidnapped in March by Maoist rebels in Orissa but released a month later. Separately, two Italian hostages, who were kidnapped in the state, were also released. In Chhattisgarh Maoist rebels kidnapped a senior administrator in Sukma district and killed his bodyguards. The politician was later released after the government met insurgents’ demands to release Maoists jailed in Chhattisgarh.
2013: At least 28 people, including several local leaders of India’s ruling Congress party, were killed in an attack by Maoist rebels in Chhattisgarh.
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