Friday, March 29, 2024

Efforts on to remove AFSPA from entire Northeast: PM Modi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said the Union is making efforts to remove the entire northeast from the ambit of the draconian Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA).

“As peace is coming, we are changing rules. Now AFSPA (The Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act too is removed from certain places because there is peace. In other places, too, we are trying if things are alright, then AFSPA will be removed from there too,” said Prime Minister Narendra Modi as he addressed a ‘unity, peace and development’ rally at Loringthepi located in Karbi Anglong in Assam.

The genesis of AFSPA, which has been called draconian by the survivors of law and human rights activists, is rooted in the 1950s.

Modi’s remarks come after the Union had announced a reduction of the disturbed areas imposed under the AFSPA in Nagaland, Assam, and Manipur from April 1, after decades.

The AFSPA, enacted in 1958 as a short-term measure to allow deployment of the army to counter an armed separatist movement in the Naga Hills, has been in force for over 60 years. In addition to Nagaland, it is currently used in Manipur, Assam, and parts of Arunachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir.

The demand for withdrawal of the controversial Act from the state has increasingly come after the killing of 14 civilians and several injured in three separate incidents of firing by security forces on 4 December and 5 in Oting, Mon district following a case of ‘mistaken identity’.

The AFSPA gives the armed forces wide powers to shoot to kill, make arrests on flimsy pretexts, conduct warrantless searches, and demolish structures in the name of “aiding civil power,” Human Rights Watch said.

The powers that the law extends to the armed forces come into force once an area subject to the act has been declared “disturbed” by the Union or state government. This declaration is not subject to judicial review.

Several reports of human rights groups found that equipped with these special powers, soldiers have raped, tortured, forcibly disappeared, and killed people without fear of being held accountable in these regions.

The act violates international human rights law protections, including the right to life, the right to be protected from arbitrary arrest and detention, and the right to be free from torture and cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment. It also denies the victims and their families the right to a remedy.

Several government-appointed commissions in India have recommended repealing the law. Several United Nations human rights bodies have also called for the repeal of the law. A 2019 report on Jammu and Kashmir by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights noted that the AFSPA “remains a key obstacle to accountability.”

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