About 3,000 police officers were involved in the operation in Chhattisgarh state, a stronghold of the armed insurgency.
Indian security forces have killed at least 12 Maoist insurgents as New Delhi steps up its crackdown protracted rebellion.
Police said on Friday that the operation broke out on Thursday in the forested areas of Bijapur district in Chhattisgarh state, known as the heartland of the insurgency.
“We have received information about the killing of 12 Maoists in clashes with security forces,” senior police official Sundarraj P told the AFP news agency. India’s Hindustan Times put the death toll at 17, adding that at least 3,000 police had been involved in the operation since Wednesday night.
Last week, police in Chhattisgarh’s Sukma district also killed at least three Maoist insurgents, including an alleged explosives expert suspected of being responsible for the deaths of several security personnel, The Indian Express reported.
Last year, India’s Home Minister Amit Shah said the government expected to quell the insurgency by 2026.
A crackdown by security forces last year killed more than 200 insurgents, the vast majority in Chhattisgarh, according to government figures.
More than 10,000 people have died in the decades-long insurgency, where the rebels claim to be fighting for the rights of marginalized indigenous peoples.
The conflict has seen a series of deadly attacks on government forces over the years.
Earlier this month, a roadside bomb was killed at least nine Indian security forces. A week later, Indian troops killed at least five militants, while a separate bomb blast wounded two policemen.
In 2021, 22 members of the police and paramilitary forces were killed in an armed confrontation with far-left rebel fighters.
In 2019, at least 16 commandos were also killed in the western state of Maharashtra in a bomb attack blamed on Maoists ahead of national elections.
