Maoists ranked fourth dreaded terror outfit after Taliban, Islamic State, Boko Haram

New Delhi: In a major cause of concern for the Indian authorities, a US-sponsored study has now claimed that the banned CPI-Maoists are the fourth dreaded terrorist outfit in the world after Taliban, Islamic State and Boko Haram.

As per the figures, which are part of the data collected by the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism contracted with the US State Department, India witnessed a total of 791 terror attacks in 2015, of which 43% were carried out by Naxalites, in which 289 people died.

The report further claimed that the CPI (Maoist) carried out a total of 343 attacks in 2015 killing 176 Indians. Taliban were involved in a massive 1,093 terror attacks, which took 4,512 lives.

The study found that as many as 28,328 people were killed and 35,320 injured in the 11,774 terror attacks witnessed by the world in 2015.

Shockingly, the study claimed that India was the fourth worst-affected country after Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Islamic State, on the other hand, launched 931 attacks which left 6,050 people dead. Boko Haram, Nigeria’s militant Islamic group, carried out 491 attacks killing a total of 5,450 people.  

Over half of the 791 terror attacks witnessed by India took place in four states – Chhattisgarh (21%), Manipur (12%), Jammu & Kashmir (11%) and Jharkhand (10%). Chhattisgarh, which has been a victim of Left-wing extremism, suffered double the attacks as compared to 2014 – 167 as compared 76 in 2014, it said.

The report further revealed that the number of people held hostage by terrorists and rebel groups in India almost tripled in 2015 – from 305 in 2014 to 862, of which Naxals alone kidnapped 707 people.

However, the data collected by Home Ministry also revealed that as many as 2,162 civilians and 802 security personnel were killed by Naxals between 2010 and 2015.