For those who consider India's Maoist insurgency a grave and urgent threat, the evidence keeps mounting. On April 6th several hundred Maoist guerrillas attacked a convoy in a forest in eastern Chhattisgarh state, killing 76 armed policemen. This was reckoned to be the worst loss in the stuttering, four-decade-long conflict.rnIt was also an emphatic response from the rebels to the central government's latest offer of peace talks. Encouraged by an ostensible Maoist ceasefire proposal, India's home minister, Palaniappan Chidambaram, has repeatedly declared the government ready to talk-provided the insurgents first lay down their arms. On April 4th, on a visit to Lalgarh, a Maoist-infested area of West Bengal, one of six states most affected by the insurgency, Mr Chidambaram asked, "Why do they not come for talks by just shunning violence?" There seems to be little prospect of this.
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