AFSPA extended in 3 districts of Arunachal Pradesh declared 'disturbed areas'

Just a day after central government announced about reducing  disturbed areas of Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) in Nagaland, Assam, and Manipur, government has now extended AFSPA applicable areas in three or districts of Arunachal Presh. According to a notification issued by Ministry of Home Affairs on Friday, several areas in Arunachal Presh followed by areas falling in Namsai district of Himachal Presh bordering Assam have been categorised as disturbed areas. 

As per notification, government has categorised Tirap, Changlang, and Longding districts and areas under Namsai and Mahevpur police stations in Namsai district, bordering Assam as ‘disturbed areas’ under Section 3 of  Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) from April 1 till September 30. 

Notably, Arunachal Presh is one of norastern states where ASFPA was imposed along with or states followed by Jammu and Kashmir and Punjab. However, in an announcement on Thursday, March 31, government announced reducing AFSPA applicable areas in three major states including Manipur, Nagaland, and Assam.

Taking to Twitter, Union Home Minister Amit Shah announced same and furr called it a "significant step" taken under decisive leership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He also said that it is result of improved security situation and speedy development in states. He also congratulated people on occasion. 

What is AFSPA?

Meanwhile,  Armed Forces Special Powers Act was originally promulgated by British rulers in response to Quit India Movement in 1942. Later after independence, act was retained by Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. Act extends special powers to army, state, and central police forces to shoot, kill, search houses and destroy any property that is possible to be used by terrorists in areas declared as “disturbed” by government. 

Following this, act was imposed in several North Eastern states followed by Jammu and Kashmir, and Punjab. While AFSPA was repealed from Punjab initially, later it was followed by Tripura and Meghalaya. However, remaining places continued to remain under act.

Image: PTI