Few images of a bleeding North-east have been as agonizing as the scenes of the latest mayhem there. What makes the violence in Nagaland and Assam look particularly grim is the fact that the victims are all innocent people. This is a dangerous new trend in a region where secessionist movements have claimed hundreds of lives over the years. But the blasts that killed more than 50 people in the two states last Saturday seem to have a darker design. Unlike usual militant strikes, they were not aimed at security forces or policemen. That raises the suspicion that the assailants really aimed at covering the region in a cloud of terror. An even more evil design would be to try and destabilize the region through such acts of violence. That, in turn, would unsettle the peace process in Nagaland and ruin the prospects of peace initiatives in Assam as well.

Whatever the motives of these traders in terror, there are grim lessons to be learnt from the latest tragedies. First, it would be suicidal to be complacent about the situation in the Northeast. There have been signs that the success of the operations against the United Liberation Front of Asom and the National Democratic Front of Bodoland inside the Bhutanese territory sometime back had blunted the edge of anti-insurgency mechanisms in Assam. In Nagaland, too, the peace talks and the ceasefire with the National Socialist Council of Nagalim, led by Mr Isak Swu and Mr Thuingaleng Muivah, may have had much the same effect. The latest brutalities should be a cruel reminder that nothing should be taken for granted in such a volatile region. Perhaps an even more important lesson is the absolute necessity for continuing with the peace process in Nagaland. The Centre and the state governments should realize that they have a dual task of ruthlessly fighting the agents of terror as well as patiently working on the agenda for peace. But the governments must not submit to violent blackmail.

New Delhi has yet another task. The chief ministers of both Nagaland and Assam, Mr Neiphiu Rio and Mr Tarun Gogoi respectively, have once again raised the issue of militants? camps and hideouts inside Bangladesh. The chief minister of Tripura, Mr Manik Sarkar, too, had done so on earlier occasions. It is becoming increasingly clear that the issue needs to be taken up with Dhaka more seriously than has been done so far. True, it figured at the recent meeting between the home secretaries of India and Bangladesh in Dhaka. But Bangladesh seems to be completely ignoring the Indian concern in this regard. The promise of the Union home minister, Mr Shivraj Patil, of a ?long-term strategy? to root out militancy in the Northeast, may not mean much if it is allowed to be abetted from across the border.