The News
The killing of a longstanding Maoist leader in India sparked hopes a decades-long insurgency may soon be quashed.
New Delhi said it had killed 27 rebels including Nambala Keshava Rao, the leader of the Naxalite movement that has claimed thousands of lives since the 1970s.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi last year announced an effort to eradicate the insurgency, which at its 2008-2009 peak, was active in 20 Indian states, a counterterrorism expert told the Financial Times, but has since been reduced to scattered pockets in just five.
The collapse represents a major victory for Modi.
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