The outlawed Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist) vowed on Thursday to keep targeting security forces to avenge what it said were atrocities by them on the locals.
"We will continue to hit hard security personnel because their atrocities against local innocent people are continuing," Gudsa Usendi, spokesperson of CPI-Maoist's frontal unit, DK Special Zonal Committee, told a news channel in Chhattisgarh from an undisclosed location.
The spokesperson refused to give details about the June 29 attack that left 27 security personnel dead in Narayanpur district, a part of 40,000 sq km restive Bastar region.
The guerrilla evaded questions such as how many Maoists were killed, how many rebels took part in the ambush, who led the attack, and how many and what kind of weapons the Maoists had looted from the slain men.
"The June 29 attack was part of Maoists' continuous retaliation against police atrocities on locals," he said.
He expressed opposition to the Chhattisgarh government's policy of granting mining rights to companies as "outsiders deprive the local people of their rights".