At least 598 people have died and many more injured in jihadi attacks outside J&K since the UPA came to power in the summer of 2004. These attacks include serial bombings, like those in Ahmedabad on Saturday, and raids by suicide squads, like the bid to blow up the Ram mandir at Ayodhya. The toll in such attacks during the NDA years was 237.
The loss of lives is much higher if separatist violence in J&K and in the North-East, and Maoist violence in other States are factored in. The overall tally for UPA years would be at least 5,272. Nearly a 1000 lives have been lost in Maoist violence, which has also resulted in the death of over 600 securitymen in the past four years.
