There have been several civilian killings in the Northeast since the AFSPA came into force
demand for cancellation Of Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act 1958 (AFSPA) Gaining momentum across the Northeast. In Nagaland, massive rallies are being held against the law. Chief Minister and his cabinet demand supported And the Chief Minister of Meghalaya has also joined. Large rallies are being held in Assam by student organizations against the Act.
The Center has tried to give the impression that 4th December Mon event, which claimed the lives of 14 civilians, was A “mistake” caused by intelligence failure, But, he Union Home Minister tried to justify the action of the army Saying that the firing was done only when the vehicle in question refused to stop at the signal and tried to run away.
People from Tiru and Oting villages in Tizit subdivision of Mon district are used for investigations conducted by security forces. One of the survivors of the shootout has said that the army personnel started firing in broad daylight without any signal. The FIR, registered by the Nagaland Police against the 21 Para Special Forces involved in the firing, states that the security forces “did not request the police station to provide police guides for the operation” and they “fired at the vehicle without any The army’s statement that its operation was based on “credible intelligence of possible insurgent movement” only shows once again how vulnerable the civilian population is in areas under AFSPA.
pattern of civilian killings
The Som incident cannot be seen as an exception or mistake as it fits into the general pattern of civilian killings that have been taking place since the first imposition of AFSPA in 1958 in the erstwhile Naga Hills district of Assam. This special incident happened. Lighting up only because of the quick intervention of the villagers. Moreover, this happened when the situation in Nagaland was largely peaceful and the state was celebrating the annual Hornbill Festival. It would probably have been a different picture if these killings had happened at the time when the army operation was going on in the area.
Nagaland has seen several cases of killings of civilians by security forces, who are innocent because of AFSPA. in your book Nagaland and India: The Blood and the Tears, Kaka Iralu has documented the extrajudicial killings and suffering of civilians under the stringent provisions of the AFSPA, which gives full leeway to the security forces for their actions.
There have been several civilian killings in the region over the past several decades since the AFSPA came into force. Few incidents are remembered in the long list of roll calls of the dead. In 1995, nine innocent civilians were murdered by Central Reserve Police Force personnel in front of RIMS Hospital in Imphal. In 2000, 10 civilians were killed by the 8th Assam Rifles at Malom Leikai after an explosion at Imphal’s Tulihal airport. It was this event that started the famous 16-year fast by Irom Sharmila to repeal AFSPA. The Manipur High Court later declared those killed innocent and announced compensation to their families. One cannot also forget that in 2004, after Thangjam Manorama was allegedly tortured, raped and brutally killed by security personnel, a group of women posed in front of the Assam Rifles Headquarters in Imphal’s Kangla Fort. The protest had started. This was followed by continuous protests by the people of Manipur for several months and eventually forced the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to visit Imphal and assured the people that he “sympathised with the legitimate aspirations of the people regarding the Act”. ” and will replace it with “a”. A more humane law” that would “take into account” the legitimate aspirations of the people and national security concerns. This is where the catch took off. Although Dr. Singh’s assurances led to the setting up of the Justice Jeevan Reddy Committee, which recommended repeal of AFSPA, In the end, national security concerns made the Commission’s recommendations unfruitful and the AFSPA continued.
editorial | End impunity: on Nagaland murder
In 2016, a two-judge bench of Supreme Court Justices Madan B Lokur and UU Lalit delivered a landmark verdict on a petition seeking probe into 1,528 cases of alleged fake encounters by a special investigation team by hundreds of families in Manipur. Army and Police between 1979 and 2012. The Court held that “there is no concept of absolute immunity from trial by a criminal court.”
Assam, which has been under AFSPA since November 1990, has had its share of killings by security forces since the United Liberation Front of Assam insurgency began in the early 1990s. The killing of youths in “encounters” had become so common that the military’s dispatches on these events appeared to be carbon copies of each other. Such killings have been documented by organizations such as the Human Rights Protection Committee.
many people who go unnoticed
However, in at least one case, due to the dogmatism of former MLA and current Asom Jatiya Parishad leader Jagdish Bhuyan and some activists of All Assam Students’ Union, the security personnel involved in the brutal murder of five youths of Talap area of Tinsukia district in February 1994. was eventually court-martialed. In that incident, nine youths were picked up by the Army on the suspicion that they were involved in the murder of Rameshwar Singh, General Manager of Assam Frontier Tea Limited, at his Talap office. Following a habeas corpus petition in the Gauhati High Court, the army handed over five bodies to the Dhola police, freeing the other four. As usual, the deaths were attributed to an encounter, while the police claimed them as murders. Finally, the Army was forced to order a court martial in July 2018 after the Gauhati High Court ordered a Central Bureau of Investigation probe that accused Army personnel of killing five youths. There were seven army personnel including a Major General. Was dismissed and sentenced to life imprisonment. This is just one case where the security cover provided by AFSPA was not enough to cover up the killings by the security forces. However, hundreds of extra-judicial killings have not been punished under AFSPA across the state.
Read also | Nagaland killings underline the damage of AFSPA
For decades now, the people of the Northeast have been living under the shadow of a harsh law that makes fun of the rights of citizens guaranteed by the Constitution. The Center has expressed regret over the failed operation. Mere regret is not enough. What is needed is that AFSPA should be abolished immediately.
Udayan Mishra is an author, professor and former National Fellow of the Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla.
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