Indian court sentences 10 to death over 2013 Maoist attack

A court in India has awarded death sentences to 10 people convicted in the 2013 attack by Maoist rebels that killed 24 people in the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh.

A statement by India’s National Investigation Agency said on Wednesday that the special court awarded the “death penalty to all 10 convicted accused persons, having found them guilty.”

On May 25, 2013, Maoist rebels carried out an attack on a march by the opposition Indian National Congress party. While 24 people were killed on the spot, including the Congress leaders, many others got injured.

“Investigation established that armed cadres of the banned terrorist organisation Communist Party of India (Maoist), in connivance with local committees/divisions, were part of a criminal conspiracy to attack and kill senior Congress leaders and security personnel in the convoy,” the agency said on Wednesday.

For more than three decades, Maoist rebels in eastern and central India have fought for what they call the tribal people's rights. The government in March this year said the insurgency had ended.