Indian troops kill 31 suspected Maoist rebels in forest battle

At least 31 suspected Maoist rebels were killed in a battle with Indian troops in central India, police said Saturday. The fighting erupted on Friday when counterinsurgency troops, acting on intelligence, cornered nearly 50 suspected rebels in the Abhujmaad forest area along the border of Narayanpur and Dantewada districts in Chhattisgarh state, said state police Inspector General Pattilingam Sundarraj. There were no reports of casualties among the troops. There was no immediate statement from the rebels. Indian soldiers have been battling the Maoist rebels across several central and northern states since 1967, when the militants, also known as Naxalites, began fighting to demand more jobs, land and wealth from natural resources for the country’s poor indigenous communities.