Indian officials say a top commander of the country's Maoist rebels has been killed in eastern India.

Koteswar Rao, known as Kishenji, was reportedly shot dead Thursday during a gunbattle in a forest in the West Midnapore district of West Bengal.

Rao was wanted for the killing of a number of police officers.

Indian Home Secretary R.K. Singh said Rao's killing is a “huge setback” for the Maoists, nothing that he was number three in the rebel group's hierarchy.

Maoist rebels, known as Naxalites or Naxals, have infiltrated more than 20 Indian states.

Indian leaders have referred to Naxalism as the country's biggest internal security threat. The groups include some of the country's most extreme poor, who say they are struggling against state-sanctioned acquisition of their land and natural resources.

Thousands of civilian and police deaths in India are blamed on Naxal attacks since the groups emerged in the late 1960s.