Nepal's Maoist Insurgency

On February 13, 1996, the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), led by Pushpa Kamal Dahal ("Prachanda") and Baburam Bhattarai, launched a "People's War" from the remote hills of Rolpa and Rukum in western Nepal. What began as a rural uprising with crude weapons grew into a full-scale civil war. By its end, approximately 17,000 people had been killed. Both sides committed serious human rights abuses: the army carried out extrajudicial killings and disappearances, while the Maoists forcibly recruited child soldiers, extorted businesses, and executed suspected informers. The insurgency devastated Nepal's already fragile economy, displaced hundreds of thousands, and paralyzed rural governance. The turning point came in 2005, when King Gyanendra's seizure of absolute power drove the Maoists and the democratic parties into an unlikely alliance. The subsequent People's Movement of April 2006 forced the king to reinstate parliament. A Comprehensive Peace Agreement in November 2006 ended the war, and the Maoists joined mainstream politics — Prachanda became prime minister in 2008, the same year Nepal abolished its monarchy. The insurgency proved that Nepal's political future would be decided not by royal decree, but by the force of popular mobilization.