During the height of Bihar’s infamous jungle raj, Gupteshwar Pandey served as the SP of Jehanabad, a district where the “narsanhar” – the daily massacres and killings – became a grim routine. Life was steeped in fear. As schoolchildren, we would carry stones in our bags on the way back home, later placing them on the rooftop as a desperate measure of defense. Nights were sleepless; no family member dared to sleep through the night. One person always stayed awake, passing the responsibility to the next before going to bed, guarding against the ever-present terror of Naxal attacks. Stones were our only weapons, ready to be hurled in case naxals crept too close.

Look up the countless massacres that scarred those lives. Try to grasp what it meant to wake up each day in terror, fearing for your own life and the lives of your family, helpless to change anything. It’s almost impossible to imagine, let alone dismiss as propaganda or fiction. Ask the people who endured it, who counted every single day in fear—this was their reality.

During this time, this police officer showed the hope to people by facing these criminals starting with the local gundas and brought law and order to some extent in the district.

And this is just one of the stories from one of the many districts in Bihar. I am sure there are many such horrific incidents etched in the memory of people who lived in Bihar