ABSTRACT
At a Congress held in the Saranda forests in Mungher district of Bihar on 21 September 2004, two lethal Naxalite groups, the Communist of Party of India — Marxist-Leninist (People's War) (CPI-ML [PW]), popularly known as PW or PWG, and the Maoist Communist Centre of India, popularly known as MCCI or MCC, merged to form the Communist Party of India (Maoist). The Maoist outfit, proscribed under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, has subsequently consolidated itself so well that it is believed to have a presence in 185 districts across seven states — varying from intense to negligible — in the country. With an estimated armed underground strength of 15,000, 1 40 per cent of whom are women, 2 the Maoists have emerged as the most potent internal threat to India.
