Maoist massacre sparks India retaliation
Reuters /NY Times: Thousands of police poured into the dense forests of eastern India on Friday after Maoist rebels massacred 55 people in a makeshift police camp in the region. The operation, involving about 8,000 police, was described by the Chhattisgarh state government as an act of revenge for the Maoist attack. ``Police have launched one of the biggest exercises in Chhattisgarh on Friday to avenge the killings,'' the state's Home Minister Ramvichar Netam told Reuters. ``The rebels have to pay the price.'' The attack was one of the deadliest in recent years by Maoist rebels, who are also called Naxalites after the village in east India's West Bengal state where the group's campaign on behalf of poor peasants and landless workers began in 1967. Between 300 and 400 rebels attacked the camp in the state's south in the early hours of Thursday, throwing grenades and petrol bombs and shooting people fleeing the burning buildings before escaping with weapon...