Police in central India said Wednesday that they had recovered the bullet-ridden bodies of four policemen abducted by Maoist rebels.
A constable at a police control room in Chhattisgarh state's Bijapur district said the bodies of the men, abducted on Monday, were found on the side of a road on Wednesday. He declined to give his name, citing department policy.
The rebels had held up a bus carrying a group of police commandos in Bijapur and abducted four of them.
The rebels, who say they're inspired by Chinese revolutionary leader Mao Zedong, have been fighting for more than five decades to demand rights and jobs for the poor. They're active in several Indian states, but Chhattisgarh, one of India's poorest, remains a hub for them.
Thousands of people, mostly police and government officials, have been killed as the rebels demand a greater share of wealth from the area's natural resources.
The government has often described the Maoists as the country's most serious internal security threat.
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