Bangladesh, April 4 -- India on Sunday recovered the bodies of 20 police and paramilitary troops killed in a gunbattle with Maoist rebels a day earlier in the forests of the eastern Chhattisgarh state, police said.

The fighting erupted Saturday when Indian security forces, acting on intelligence, raided a rebel hideout in Bijapur district, police said.

This was India's deadliest engagement with the Maoist rebels in four years. The government has said the insurgents, inspired by Chinese revolutionary leader Mao Zedong, pose the country's most serious internal security threat.

Also read: India police: Gunbattle kills 5 troops, Maoist rebel

At least 22 Indian troops were killed and 31 others wounded, with seven in critical condition, sai...