BHUBANESWAR, India (Reuters) - Hundreds of Maoist rebels in India's eastern Orissa state attacked police stations in a district close to the capital, killing 14 people and looting weapons, police and officials said on Saturday.
All but one of the dead were police officers and there wasno word of casualties among the Maoists. The other victim was acivilian.
The rebels say they are fighting for the rights of the poorand landless and regularly stage raids in the swathe of easternand central India in which they have a presence.
Prime Minister Manmoham Singh has declared theirdecades-old insurgency as the gravest threat to India'sinternal security.
The simultaneous attacks on towns in Orissa's Nayagarhdistrict began late on Friday and lasted for several hours,superintendent of police Rajesh Kumar told Reuters fromNayagarh town, just 80 km (50 miles) southwest of the statecapital, Bhubaneswar.
"About 500 armed rebels rushed to Nayagarh town in vehiclesand attacked a police station, armoury and police trainingcentre, hurled bombs in several places and looted huge quantityof arms and ammunitions," Kumar said.
Similar raids took place in two other district towns andgun battles followed as police fought back.
Kumar said 13 policemen and one civilian were killed in theattacks, while two other officers were in a critical conditionin hospital.
Orissa's Director General of Police Gopal Chandra Nandasaid hundreds of police and paramilitary forces were searchingfor the rebels in surrounding countryside.
(Reporting by Jatindra Dash, Editing by Mark Williams andSanjeev Miglani)
