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RAIPUR, India: Indian authorities vowed Wednesday to hit back at Maoist rebels who killed 76 police in a brutally effective attack that undermined a months-long government offensive against the insurgents.
The massacre, in the central state of Chhattisgarh, was the biggest single blow that the Maoists have landed in their decades-long struggle against India's regional and central governments.
Home Secretary Gopal K. Pillai said that the left-wing rebels would pay a high price for the killings.
"In the days and months to come we will hunt everyone down," he said, adding that the government response would become "much firmer and fitting".
The Chhattisgarh state police spokesman said Wednesday the death toll had risen to 76 -- 74 Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) officers and two other security force personnel.
Four helicopters were retrieving bodies from the forested Dantewada district where Home Minister P. Chidambaram said the patrol "had walked into a trap" laid by the Maoists.
Chidambaram visited the region on Wednesday and attended a sombre ceremony to honour the dead.
The guerrillas have stepped up attacks in response to the government's "Operation Green Hunt" offensive launched late last year in Maoist-hit areas across north and eastern India.
Tribal groups and many rural areas have been left behind by the country's economic development, and the poverty and discontent with local government corruption is seen as a major source of Maoist support.
- AFP/yb
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