IANS

Nagpur, Oct 9: In a major attack days before the assembly polls, Maoist guerrillas Thursday ambushed a police patrol and gunned down at least 17 policemen in a jungle stretch of Maharashtra's Gadchiroli district. Suspected Maoists also slit the throat of a police informer and dumped his body in the same district, police said.

The massacre occurred about a kilometre from Laheri village in Bhamragad sub district when the policemen were passing through thick forests in search of hidden Maoists, an official of the Gadchiroli district police told IANS.

Reports received by the police indicate that more than 150 Maoists were involved in the attack, one of the worst in recent times.

The body of an informer, Suresh B. Halati, 35, was found on Tuesday. His throat had been slit, allegedly by the Maoists, an official of the Gadchiroli police control told IANS.

Halati was a resident of Dhanora sub district.

In Thursday's attack, a Sub Inspector Chandrakant Deshmukh, was killed along with 16 of his men. Deshmukh belonged to Satara, in western Maharashtra.

The state government has deployed Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel and additional forces have been summoned from nearby districts to help in the search operations. A helicopter has been sent from Nagpur to assist the police.

Initial reports said only two policemen were injured. Later reports put the toll at 17.

The Maoist attack - the second in less than 18 hours in the same region - came a day after Home Minister P. Chidambaram urged the Maoists to shun violence and go for a dialogue with the government.

Earlier, a gang of Maoists set fire to the Ramgad village panchayat building in the area late Wednesday, burning all records, furniture and fittings.

The latest incident comes days before Maharashtra votes Oct 13 to elect a new assembly.

Gadchiroli district in eastern Maharashtra is situated around 180 km from Nagpur and 1,200 km from Mumbai. It has been a bastion of Maoists for years.