Nine Killed in Roadside Bomb Attack in Central India

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.