The state incurred heavy losses in the Mangalsen attack. After the Maoists mounted an assault on the army barracks and killed a large number of security personnel, the government was trying to formulate a new strategy to deploy the army against the insurgents. A unified command of the country’s three security bodies – the Nepal Police, the Armed Police Force and the Royal Nepal Army, all of which were being targeted by the Maoists – would be formed under the army leadership.