The controversial law AFSPA in Nagaland has been extended for six months
Kohima:
AFSPA, a controversial law that protects security forces from harassment, has been extended by another six months in Nagaland, where the army is conducting a Court of Inquiry into the ambush attack that went horribly wrong on December 4.
The Armed Forces (Special) Powers Act, or AFSPA, gives the military broad powers to operate freely anywhere it has been declared a “disturbed area”; In the area where AFSPA is in force, no army personnel can be persecuted without the approval of the Centre.
Rights groups from Nagaland and even the state government have been demanding the Center to withdraw the AFSPA.
Anti-AFSPA calls recently intensified following an ambush by Para Special Forces of the Army in Nagaland on December 4, when they killed 13 civilians returning from a mine at night . Later a constable was killed in an attack by villagers, who enraged the jawans.
On 20 December, the Nagaland Assembly unanimously resolved to demand repeal of AFSPA from the Northeast, especially the state. A five-member committee headed by top bureaucrat Vivek Joshi has been constituted to examine the possibility of withdrawing AFSPA from Nagaland.
The army has also agreed to give access to the Nagaland Special Investigation Team or SIT to record the statements of soldiers involved in the December 4 ambush.
It is not yet clear how the investigation by the state-level team will proceed as Nagaland is under AFSPA.
The AFSPA has been extended every six months for several years in Nagaland, which has long been a “disturbed area”. Declaring a place a “disturbed area” is the first requirement for implementing AFSPA, a law that has its roots in the colonial era and was used to quell protests.
,