NEW DELHI, May 4 (Xinhua) -- Indian police said on Thursday that they have taken into custody 11 left-wing Naxalite rebels in connection with the killing of 25 para-military troopers in an ambush in the central state of Chhattisgarh last month.
"Around 11 of them have been taken into custody and all of them belong to the Chintalnar and Chintafuga area of the Sukma district where the ambush took place. They are being interrogated," P. Sundarraj, deputy inspector general of Chhattisgarh police, told the media.
"If there is any evidence of involvement... they would be arrested and prosecuted before court. Efforts are also on to nab all the perpetrators of the attack," he added.
The 25 troopers of the para-military Central Reserve Police Force were killed on April 24 in a fierce gunfight with some 300 armed Naxalite rebels who had laid the ambush on them near Kala Pathar close to the Burkapal-Chintagufa area in Sukma.
The security forces personnel were providing protection for road construction work in the area when they were attacked.
Around 10 to 12 Naxalites were also shot dead in retaliatory fire.
The Naxalites claim that they are fighting for greater rights for tribal people and the rural poor.
Their movement began in the eastern state of West Bengal in the late 1960s and spread into less developed areas of rural southern and eastern India.
The Naxalites are now active in more than one third of India's 600-plus administrative districts. They routinely target Indian security forces.
