PATNA: India will push ahead with an offensive against Maoist rebels despite the death of 76 government troops in an ambush by insurgents in the east, the country’s top security official said today.

The ambush in a dense forest yesterday was the deadliest single attack on government fighters in the 43-year-old insurgency. It stunned Indians, highlighted the growing threat posed by the Maoists and showed that the rebels appeared uncowed by a government offensive aimed at crushing them. Indian Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram flew to the area today and laid a wreath near the coffins of the slain security forces.

He insisted the government would not back down.

“I think we should, while we grieve the dead, hold our nerve and continue to do what we are doing - namely to rid India of the gravest threat to internal security, which is the Naxalite threat,” he said, referring to the Maoists by their nickname. “This is a long, drawn-out struggle. It will take two to three years, perhaps more.” The rebels, who have tapped into the rural poor’s growing anger at being left out of the country’s economic gains, are now present in 20 of the country’s 28 states. Up to 2,000 people - including police, militants and civilians - have been killed over the past few years.

Last year, the government announced its “Operation Green Hunt” offensive aimed at flushing the militants out of their forest hide-outs. Both the insurgents and government forces have been accused of using violence and intimidation against local villagers to coerce their cooperation.

The government has said it is willing to talk with the rebels if they give up violence, but the rebels say there should be no pre-conditions for negotiations.

Critics have said the troops are poorly trained and under-equipped and are essentially canon fodder for rebels fighting on their home turf in the jungles.

“We can’t expect instant success,” Chidambaram said. “We are paying the price for the neglect of the last 10 to 12 years.” More than 500 Maoists launched the attack early Tuesday morning on a group of soldiers who set out from a temporary base in Chhattisgarh state’s Dantewada forests, said GK Pillai, the federal home secretary. More soldiers were killed when they stepped on land mines the Maoists planted throughout the ambush zone, he said.