Indian forces kill Maoist rebel leader

Indian security forces killed a senior Maoist rebel commander and three other fighters including two women in a raid yesterday, police said, as authorities push a major offensive against the guerrillas.

New Delhi has launched an all-out campaign against the insurgents and vowed to end the Maoist rebellion by March 2026.

Police in the eastern state of Odisha said they had killed Maoist commander Ganesh Uike in a gunfight in Kandhamal district, after security forces received a tip-off about his location.

Uike, 69, the leader of the Maoist rebels in the coastal state, had a bounty of more than $120,000 on his head.

"Four dead bodies of Maoists" were recovered following the gunfight, top state police officer Yogesh Bahadur Khurania said, identifying one of them as Uike.