Rahul Pandita is the author of Our Moon Has Blood Clots, a memoir on how the Hindu minority in the state of Kashmir became victims of a brutal ethnic cleansing at the hands of Islamist militants in 1990. He has also authored Hello, Bastar: The Untold Story of India’s Maoist Movement, and co-authored The Absent State. He has extensively reported from war zones, including Iraq and Sri Lanka, though his most recent focus has been on India’s Maoist rebellion, in Central and East India. In 2009, he was given a rare access by the Maoists to interview their supreme commander Ganapathi He received the 2010 International Red Cross award for conflict reporting. Rahul was born in Kashmir valley. At the age of 14, his family was forced into exile, like thousands of others, by Islamic extremists. Rahul currently works as Associate Editor with Open Magazine.