18 policemen killed in shootout with Naxals

NAGPUR: Eighteen policemen were on Thursday killed in an ambush by Maoists at Laheri police station in Gadchiroli district of Maharashtra.

A police team of 45 personnel was on a patrolling duty in the area when it was ambushed by the Maoists, official sources said adding the incident sparked a gunbattle between the two sides that lasted for more than four hours.

Eighteen policemen, including sub inspector C S Deshmukh, were killed in the ambush by over 150 naxals, they said.

The encounter comes barely hours after Maoists set ablaze a gram panchyat office in the area, sources said.

The shootout, which lasted for over an hour, took place in a forest in Lehari in Bhamragarh taluka, police said.

A group of Naxalites opened fire on a police party which was promptly returned, sources said, adding the exact condition of the injured policemen was not immediately known.

Earlier, Maoists had set ablaze a gram panchyat office in Gadchiroli district.

The incident comes two days after the beheading of Jharkhand police officer Francis Induwar. Home Minister P Chidambaram had yesterday said the security forces will engage the Maoists till they abjure violence and the air force will take steps to protect itself from any Naxal attacks.

"As long as the CPI-Maoists believe in an armed liberation struggle, we have no option but to ask our security forces to engage them, we will arrest them, we will apprehend them," Chidambaram had said in Mumbai.