Indian police kill 25 suspected Maoists: officer

RAIPUR: Indian security forces said on Tuesday they had killed 25 suspected Maoist guerrillas in the insurgency-riven central state of Chhattisgarh, while two policemen died in a separate landmine blast.

"At least 25 Maoists were killed at Jagargunda village in a fierce gun battle with security forces," the chief policeman in charge of anti-Maoist operations in Chhattisgarh, Ramniwas, who only uses one name, said.

About 500 police and paramilitaries attacked a group of up to 200 suspected Maoists who had gathered for a meeting in a village in Dantewada district, more than 600 kilometres (370 miles) south of the state capital Raipur, local police sources said.

In another rebel stronghold of the state, Bijapur district, a landmine blew up a police vehicle killing two paramilitary officers, local police official Rajbhanu said.