Three men went missing in Indian-administered Kashmir in April. Nothing extraordinary about that, but some time later their bodies were discovered near the Line of Control (LoC), which separates Indian- and Pakistani-administered Kashmir - a fate which militants trying to cross the border often meet. But during investigations, the police discovered that the men had been killed in a staged gun battle in a frontier area. The probe also revealed that a senior...

One year after anti-Maoist operations began in this district, it is a story of mixed success. While normal life has been restored, with offices, shops and schools having re-opened, vehicles back on the roads and farmers back in the fields, an eerie calm prevails. Villagers still complain of late-night gunfights and sudden police raids keeping them up through most nights. They are haunted by fears of discovering a bullet-riddled body...

Some of the districts hit by India’s biggest internal security threat seem to have done as well or better than the rest of the country in one key development-related aspect, according to the government. Unlike other welfare schemes that fail to take off in any significant way in these areas, the performance of the flagship Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) in 31 districts, around one-third of the total...

While the focus remains on the recent spate of Maoist attacks, statistics show that Naxals have been killing three persons in every two days for the past five years. The Left-wing extremists have killed about 2,670 people -- about 1,680 Civilians and nearly 990 security personnel -- since 2005, equalling three deaths every two days. About 1,440 Maoists have also lost their lives in the past five years, which translates...

The Centre has claimed that India’s Northeast has never been as peaceful this century as it has been since January 2009. The “peace”, however, appears to have flowed from the barrel of a gun. The last 15 months have witnessed the lowest number of civilian and security force casualties in the region since January 2000, according to Union home ministry data for six northeasern states (minus Mizoram) released today. At the same...