ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on insurgent groups which maintain 'private armies' that engage in both guerrilla campaigns and conduct terrorist attacks. From its very independence, India has struggled to maintain 'law and order' in the north-east and north-west. India maintains 1.2 million strong paramilitary forces led by police officers for countering insurgencies. The mid-1990s saw the Hizbul Mujahidin and the Afghan jihadis fighting shoulder to shoulder in Kashmir against the Indian security forces. In the first decade of the twenty-first century, more than 40 insurgent groups are operating in North-East India. The Maoists have eighty training camps in India with an infrastructure to train 300 cadres at a time. Insurgency in Nepal first emerged in 1996 in North Rolpa and Rukum districts which had never experienced any major developmental activity. Besides indulging in occasional terrorist acts, the insurgent forces of the subcontinent conduct classic hit and run guerrilla attacks.
