Police said on Friday that the operation broke out on Thursday in the forested areas of Bijapur district in the state of Chhattisgarh, known as the heartland of the rebellion.

“We have received information of the killing of 12 Maoists in encounters with the security forces,” senior police official Sundarraj P told the AFP news agency. India’s Hindustan Times news outlet placed the death toll at 17, adding that at least 3,000 police personnel were involved in the operation since Wednesday night.

Last week, police in Chhattisgarh’s Sukma district also killed at least three Maoist rebels, including a reported explosive expert suspected of being responsible for the deaths of several security personnel, according to The Indian Express newspaper.

Last year, India’s Interior Minister Amit Shah said the government expected to crush the rebellion by 2026.

A crackdown by security forces has killed more than 200 rebels in the past year, an overwhelming majority in Chhattisgarh, according to government data.

More than 10,000 people have died in the decades-long rebellion, where the rebels say they are fighting for the rights of marginalised, Indigenous people.

The conflict has seen a number of deadly attacks on government forces over the years.

Earlier this month, a roadside bomb killed at least nine Indian security forces. A week after that, Indian troops killed at least five fighters while a separate bomb blast wounded two police officers.

In 2021, 22 police and paramilitary members were killed in a gun battle with the far-left rebel fighters.

In 2019, at least 16 commandos were also killed in the western state of Maharashtra in a bomb attack that was blamed on the Maoists in the lead-up to national elections.