Seven Chhattisgarh policemen killed in mine by suspected Maoists

KOLKATA (Reuters) - Suspected Maoist rebels set off a landmine on Tuesday in Chhattisgarh, killing at least seven policemen, officials said.

Tuesday's attack happened when the policemen were crossing a culvert near Jagdalpur, in Chhattisgarh, after returning a patrol during local elections, Amarnath Upadhyaya, a senior police official, told Reuters.

Chhattisgarh is among a dozen Indian states where Maoists control large swathes of mineral-rich forests and mountains, from where they attack government buildings and security forces.

Landmine blasts triggered by suspected Maoist insurgents during state assembly elections on Nov. 14 in Chhattisgarh killed a policeman and an air force official.

The Maoists had called for a poll boycott.

Maoist rebels say they are fighting for the rights of poor farmers and landless labourers, an insurgency Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has described as the gravest threat to India's internal security.

Thousands of people have been killed in the insurgency, which began in the late 1960s.