At least 11 Indian security forces personnel were killed and seven others injured in an ambush by left-wing Naxalite rebels in the central state of Chhattisgarh Monday, a senior police official said.
"Some 11 personnel of the Central Reserve Security Force (CRPF) jawans were martyred and seven others injured in the ambush in the state's Sukma district. The Naxalites looted all the arms and ammunition of the security forces," Sukma's additional police chief Jitendra Shukla told media.
According to the senior police official, the Naxalites led the ambush on a patrolling party of the CRPF near Burkapal village which was supporting road construction work in the area when they were attacked.
The injured were evacuated by the helicopter and special commando teams of CRPF as reinforcements were conducting search operations, he said.
Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh also called an emergency meeting.
This is not the first such attack in Sukma district.
Twelve personnel of the CRPF were killed in the same district early this year in a deadly Naxal ambush.
Naxalites are also known as "Maoists."
Maoist insurgency has its genesis in the violent left-wing rebellion that began in 1967 at village Naxalbari in the Indian state of West Bengal.
Currently Maoists are active in more than a third of the total 600-odd districts across central and eastern India.