New Delhi- Maoist guerrillas in India's eastern state of Bihar shot dead six villagers belonging to a rival Maoist outfit on Thursday, a news report said.

Rebels belonging to the outlawed Communist Party of India (Maoist) shot dead six activists of the Sashatra People's Morcha (SPM), in the southern district of Rohtas, senior police official SK Bharadwaj told the PTI news agency.

The SPM is active mostly in the neighbouring state of Jharkhand and the victims, involved in armed resistance against the CPI (Maoist), were renegade members of the organization, Bharadwaj said.

The encounter took place in the Tardih jungle, near the Jharkhand border, some 160 kilometres south-west of the state capital Patna.

Maoist rebels, who claim to be fighting for the rural poor, tribal people and the landless, operate in 13 of India's 29 states.

Thousands of people, mostly police, paramilitary personnel and government officials, have been killed in the insurgency since the late 1960s.

Jharkhand is among the Indian states worst affected by the Maoist militancy.

Latest official figures show central Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand states accounted for nearly two-thirds of the 650 casualties of security personnel and civilians in Maoist violence last year. (dpa)