NEW DELHI, Oct. 12 (Xinhua) -- A dreaded left-wing Naxalite rebel has been killed in a gunbattle with security forces in the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh, police said Friday.

"The exchange of fire took place when a group of armed Naxalites opened fire on a team of District Reserve Guard that was on an anti-Naxalite operation in a forest in the state's Sukma district late Thursday evening," a police official said.

After the firing stopped from all sides, security forces combed the forest and came across the body of the dead Naxalite, who was a deputy rebel commander wanted in several cases, he said.

Chhattisgarh is often hit by Naxalite violence.

The left-win insurgency began in the eastern state of West Bengal in late 1960s, spreading to more than one-third of India's administrative districts.

Though major offensives by security forces in recent years have pushed the rebels back to their forest strongholds and the levels of violence have fallen, but hit-and-run attacks are still common, killing hundreds of people, mostly security personnel, every year.