Indian police have said that Maoist rebels launched a deadly attack on a ruling party campaign convoy in a restive central state Tuesday, just two days before voting starts in the country’s general election.
“At the moment we are ascertaining the number of dead,” Girdhari Nayak, a senior officer from Chhattisgarh state, where the attack occurred, told AFP.
Federal Cabinet meeting takes important decisions Nayak said the rebels, who have been waging an armed insurgency against the state for decades, detonated a roadside bomb before firing on the convoy of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) officials.
The rebels often call for a boycott of elections as part of their campaign against the Indian state.
“It was a massive blast … The vehicle was blown apart,” he said.
“Immediately after the blast, the Maoists opened indiscriminate firing. One bullet hit the local lawmaker. Firing is underway. Bodies are mutilated.”
