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

Just a day after the central government announced about reducing the disturbed areas of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) in Nagaland, Assam, and Manipur, the government has now extended the AFSPA applicable areas in three other districts of Arunachal Pradesh. According to a notification issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs on Friday, several areas in Arunachal Pradesh followed by areas falling in the Namsai district of Himachal Pradesh bordering Assam have been categorised as disturbed areas. As per the notification, the government has categorised Tirap, Changlang, and Longding districts and areas under Namsai and Mahadevpur police stations in Namsai district, bordering Assam as ‘disturbed areas’ under Section 3 of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) from April 1 till September 30. Notably, Arunachal Pradesh is one of the northeastern states where ASFPA was imposed along with other states followed by Jammu and Kashmir and Punjab. However, in an announcement on Thursday, March 31, the government announced reducing AFSPA applicable areas in the three major states including Manipur, Nagaland, and Assam. Taking to Twitter, Union Home Minister Amit Shah announced the same and further called it a "significant step" taken under the decisive leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He also said that it is the result of the improved security situation and the speedy development in the states. He also congratulated the people on the occasion. What is AFSPA? Meanwhile, the Armed Forces Special Powers Act was originally promulgated by the British rulers in response to the Quit India Movement in 1942. Later after independence, the act was retained by Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. The Act extends special powers to the army, state, and the 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 the government. Following this, the 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 While AFSPA was repealed from Punjab initially, later it was followed by Tripura and Meghalaya.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, the remaining places continued to remain under the act. Image: PTI

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

Just a day after the Centre announced reducing the AFSPA applicable areas in three northeastern states, AFSPA extended in three districts of Arunachal Pradesh.

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