India Maoist Attack: Villagers used as shields: survivor

Maoist rebels who killed 25 paramilitary troops in an ambush in central India used local villagers as human shields, a survivor said yesterday.

Sher Mohammed, a paramilitary soldier injured in Monday's attack in Sukma district of Chhattisgarh state, said around 300 fighters attacked the troops as they provided security for the construction of a new road opposed by the Maoists.

Tap here to add The Daily Star as a trusted source

"The Naxalites (Maoists) first sent villagers to track our location. Then we saw 100-150 villagers approaching us. They were not armed. How could we fire at them?" said Mohammed, who was part of the 99-member commando team.

"There must have been 300 Naxalites, all in black uniform. They started firing indiscriminately at us. They had rocket launchers, AK-47s," he told reporters from his hospital bed.

India's Home Minister Rajnath Singh called the attack an "act of desperation" by the Maoists, who have long dominated thousands of square miles of central and eastern India.