Ending the red terror

摘要

Since 2006, when Manmo-han Singh described the Maoist insurgency as the "single biggest internal-security challenge" India had ever faced, it has spread rapidly. Maoist guerrillas are now active in over a third of India's 626 districts,rnwith 90 seeing "consistent violence". Last year the conflict claimed 998 lives. This month alone the Maoists-or Naxalites, as they are known-slaughtered 24 policemen in West Bengal and 12 villagers in Bihar (see page 60). Yet neither official concern at the highest level nor continuing horrific violence have prompted a concerted and coherent strategy for dealing with the insurgency. It is time for the government to devise one.