MAOISTS ADMIT TO DEATH OF 29 IN KANKER OPERATION

A frontal organisation of the outlawed CPI(Maoists) Thursday admitted that 29 cadres were killed in Tuesday's Kanker encounter in Chhattisgarh. It named 27 of them, but the list does not include Lalita, named by police as dreaded Maoist shot dead in the gunfight.

A statement, dated April 18, from Ramko Hichami, spokesperson of Krantikari Adivasi Mahila Sangthan, says identity of some killed Naxalites was wrong so they are "releasing correct names". The list largely matches the police list of 9 identified Maoists, including divisional committee's Shankar Rao.

Bastar range IG P Sundarraj said: "This indicates that lower rung cadres were deserted by senior colleagues."