Maoists plant bomb in dead Indian policeman

Maoist rebels planted a bomb inside the stomach of an Indian policeman killed during clashes in the eastern state of Jharkhand, a hotbed of left-wing extremism, police said on Thursday. The bomb was found by a team of doctors conducting post-mortems following the death of 10 policemen in Latehar district, 108 kilometres (67 miles) from the state capital Ranchi, after a clash with the insurgents on Monday. The doctors became suspicious upon seeing stitches around the stomach of the dead man, senior Jharkhand police officer S.N. Pradhan told AFP. "We were not prepared for it because we never expected such (a) thing," he said. The device was later defused by a bomb squad, a senior official from the Central Reserve Police Force told the Press Trust of India news agency. "The doctors were shocked to see that vital organs like intestines and spleen were taken out to create a cavity to place the 1.5kg unexploded bomb. The Naxals (Maoists) had done a very clean vertical stitching," the agency said, quoting the official. The Maoist guerrillas, described by the government as the country's most serious internal security threat, control large swathes of central and eastern India and often raise funds through extortion and protection rackets. In New Delhi, Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde said the government had taken note of the latest tactic. "An IED (improvised explosive device) was found stitched in the stomach. It was found out and defused. They keep coming up with new ploys, we have given instructions and taken control of the situation," he said at a press conference. Maoists say they are fighting for the rights of poor farmers and landless labourers. They have spread into rural pockets in 20 of India's 28 states. Thousands have been killed in the insurgency since the late 1960s.