RANCHI, India, June 12 (Reuters) - Maoist rebels killed 13 policemen in two separate attacks in an eastern Indian state on Friday, officials said, the second attack on security forces this week in the region. Ten policemen were killed when the rebels triggered a landmine blast near a police station in Jharkhand state's Bokaro district early on Friday, a top police officer said. Three others were shot dead by the rebels near a remote village in the same district. The Maoists say they are fighting for the rights of poor farmers and the landless. Thousands have been killed in the Maoist insurgency in India which began in the late 1960s, described by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as one of the gravest threats to India's internal security. Mineral-rich Jharkhand state has been the hotbed of rebel violence, with a string of attacks carried out against the police in recent months. On Wednesday, Maoist rebels killed 11 policemen in West Singbhum district of Jharkhand. The rebels also shut down shops and schools in rural strongholds in east and central India on Friday to protest the recent killing of a senior leader by the police. (Reporting by Nityanand Shukla; Writing by Bappa Majumdar; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)
Flood-affected people move to safer grounds at Lakhimpur district, about 600 km (373 miles) from Guwahati, the main city of India's northeastern state of Assam June 11, 2009. The flash floods ...
