The scale and style of this carnage, unprecedented in Nepal's history, is distressing even in comparison to the violence-ridden regions such as the Indian Northeast or Kashmir. Even the Maoists' fellow travellers, the People's War group in Andhra Pradesh or others in central Bihar, have not managed quite this level of 'war'.
Ironically, the demographic profile of the dead policemen match those of the Maoist cadres that killed them, coming as they do from the same rural peasantry of hill and the tarai.
Such is the indifference of Kathmandu's educated—the political class, the 'intelligentsia' and the media—that the modest ripple of concern exhibited was hardly proportional to the scale of the massacre. The leader of the main opposition party—the Communist Party of Nepal (UML)—lacking any suggestion for an immediate solution, demanded the prime minister's resignation, forgetting in the process to address words of concern to the families of the deceased policemen.
For their part, Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala and his government are unequal to the challenge of confronting the mysterious forces that seem intent on dragging the country towards the precipice. The prime minister's feckless conduct in the face of the Maoist challenge is sufficient reason to demand his resignation, using appropriate parliamentary and democratic methods. Instead, the main opposition party has abandoned the Pratinidhi Sabha and taken to the streets to force Koirala's ouster on an aircraft leasing scam.