Death Toll in Indian Maoist Attack Rises to 23

The death toll from an ambush by Maoist rebels in central India has risen to at least 23 with many more seriously wounded, a top police officer said on Sunday.

"The total number of dead now stands at 23. We can also confirm that 32 people are injured, most of them seriously," state police director general Ramniwas, who goes by one name, told AFP.

Heavily-armed Maoist rebels on Saturday attacked a convoy of local Congress leaders in a remote tribal belt of Chhattisgarh state as they returned from a political rally nearby.

The rebels detonated a bomb before firing indiscriminately at the convoy, killing some senior state leaders on the spot including Mahendra Karma, a former state home minister who had set up a controversial anti-Naxalite group in 2005.

State Congress chief Nand Kumar Patel and his son were also killed in the deadly ambush in Bastar district south of capital Raipur and their bullet-ridden bodies had been recovered, Ramniwas said.

The attack is the latest in a simmering conflict that pits the left-wing insurgents against local and national authorities in the forests and rural areas of mainly central and eastern India.

The guerrillas, who say they are fighting for the rights of tribal people and landless farmers, often collect funds through extortion and protection rackets.