The very night that Uma Singh was murdered, another unidentified group shot dead 40-year old Pachu Hazara in Rautahat. In the last six months at least 100 people have lost their lives in the Tarai. Not a day passes in the Tarai without an explosion, abduction or murder. The government is busy with dialogues with shady groups that are hardly known. That may have its use, but the government doesn't seem to have recognised the terrifying violence that has engulfed the Tarai.

As armed activities increase, the situation becomes more and more unstable. The government should place this situation of increasing insecurity and anarchy as the top internal security challenge. The effort to bring in the rebellious groups peacefully into mainstream politics should not be stopped, but this does not imply that the administrative moves to curtail criminal activities should end. Until the government differentiates the political sources of the conflict in Tarai from the non-political, the situation will n ot improve.