Raipur, July 16 (IANS) Chhattisgarh, the state worst hit by Maoist violence, Friday announced the opening of three counter-insurgency and anti-terrorism schools to train policemen to take on the left wing rebels.

The three schools have come up at Mana area on outskirts of state capital Raipur, at Rajnandgaon bordering Maharashtra, and Jagdalpur, considered the nerve centre of Maoist insurgents, a statement said.

The statement informed that the schools were opened Thursday and ‘experts drawn from the army, central paramilitary forces and police will train Chhattisgarh Police ‘jawans’ on how to take effective steps against insurgency and terrorism’.

Chhattisgarh already has a Counter Terrorism and Jungle Warfare College (CTJWC) in Kanker that has trained nearly 7,000 policemen from various states since mid-2005. The school’s motto is to ‘take on guerrilla like a guerrilla’.

Officials at the police headquarters here say that over 2,000 people, including 1,000 civilians, have been killed in Maoist violence since the state was carved out of Madhya Pradesh in November 2000.