A special court in India has handed down death sentences to 10 Maoist rebels for their involvement in a deadly 2013 ambush that claimed 27 lives, including top political leaders.
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) of India announced on Wednesday that the convicts were found guilty of multiple charges, including "conspiracy" and "waging war against the state." The fatal attack occurred in May 2013 in a remote, forested region of the central state of Chhattisgarh, targeting a convoy and effectively wiping out the local state leadership of the Congress party.
According to the NIA's investigation, the 10 Maoist members participated in a "criminal conspiracy to attack and kill senior Congress leaders and security personnel." During the ambush, the insurgents detonated a landmine, threw grenades, and opened "indiscriminate firing" at the vehicles.
The Maoist rebellion, which began in the 1960s, has spanned nearly six decades and resulted in more than 12,000 deaths. A former Indian prime minister once labeled the rebellion the country's "biggest internal security threat." However, a prolonged military campaign across the "Red Corridor"—regions where the guerrillas had previously displaced the government to establish parallel administrations—has largely defeated the movement.
Capital punishment in India is carried out by hanging. The country's most recent executions occurred in March 2020, when four men were hanged for the high-profile 2012 gang rape and murder of a woman on a Delhi bus.
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