The mistaken ambush by the army in Nagaland last week that killed six people, and the subsequent violence in which several more lives were lost, has cast a shadow on a heartening trend observed in the Northeast over the past few years. Violence in the seven Northeastern states of India had fallen significantly from 2014 to 2019, the government told Parliament two years ago (chart 1).

       Violent activities had reduced by three-fourths in the region. And loss of human life had also been controlled to a considerable extent (chart 2). Though there was numerical improvement in the ...