(Harvard International Review) – Paramilitary troops had been living in the classrooms of Tankuppa High School for three years when my colleagues at Human Rights Watch visited the town in India’s eastern state of Bihar in 2009. The soldiers had moved into the school after a group of Maoist rebels attacked and destroyed the police station where the troops were based. On any given day, from 25 to 40 armed men were deployed at the school. They had added brick sentry boxes on the school roof and other fortifications, including sandbags, around the main gate.
