Maoist rebels kill four policemen in India

PATNA: A group of more than 50 Maoist guerrillas in eastern India ambushed a police patrol on Tuesday, killing the district police chief and three other officers, officials said.

The rebels opened fire on vehicles carrying police superintendent Amarjeet Balihar in Dumka district in Jharkhand, an impoverished and densely forested state home to a large Maoist movement.

"More than 50 armed Maoists were involved in the attack," deputy police superintendent Anil Srivastava told AFP from state capital Ranchi by telephone.

"Two others have been injured," he said, adding that Balihar was the police chief of Pakur, one of the several Jharkhand districts where Maoists hold sway.

On June 13, 100 leftwing guerrillas opened fire on a passenger train in the adjacent state of Bihar, killing one police officer and two passengers.

In May, they killed 24 people including local leaders of the country's governing Congress party during an ambush in the central state of Chhattisgarh.

The revolutionaries, described by the government as the country's most serious internal security threat, have waged a decades-long battle across central and eastern states to overthrow local and national authorities.

The rebels say they are fighting for the rights of the poor and landless farmers in India. (AFP)