Posted on 04/08/2004 4:59:53 AM PDT by Tailgunner Joe
Communist guerrillas calling for a boycott of the Indian national elections are suspected of triggering a land mine that killed at least 26 policemen in the eastern state of Jharkhand.
The policemen were blown up last night as they travelled in a truck and a jeep on a dirt road in the Saranda Forest.
Police had raided a suspected guerrilla hideout in the dense jungle and were leaving the forest when the land mine went off, said a spokesman.
The attack took place on the eve of deputy prime minister, Lal Krishna Advani campaigning in Jharkhand. Despite the attack, he headed there today.
“It seems the incident was triggered ... to disrupt the elections, but they will not succeed in their designs,” said the state’s chief minister, Arjun Munda, as saying.
Militants of the outlawed People’s War Group were suspected of involvement in the attack, police said, but Munda blamed a similar group, the Maoist Communist Centre.
More than 6,000 people have been killed since the rebels, inspired by Chinese revolutionary leader Mao Zedong, began fighting in 1981.
The insurgents mostly target rich landowners and police, who they say collude to exploit landless farmers and rural labourers.
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