Nagaland: Home ministry declared ‘disturbed area’ tag for five more months under AFSPA
Wednesday, December 31, 2020
The Ministry of Home Affairs on Wednesday declared Nagaland as a “disturbed area” for six more months under the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958.
The augmentation is a routine affair as the state has been under AFSPA for almost six decades. The last such extension from the Centre was on June 30.
As per the team of “The Reader’s Time”, Home Ministry at a press release, stated that the Central government is of the opinion that the area comprising the whole of the State of Nagaland is in such a disturbed and dangerous condition that the use of armed forces in aid of the civil power is necessary.
The AFSPA has not been withdrawn even after a framework agreement was signed on August 3, 2015, by Naga insurgent group National Socialist Council of Nagaland (Isak Muivah) General Secretary Thuingaleng Muivah and government interlocutor RN Ravi in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act gives the military sweeping powers to search and arrest, and to open fire if they deem it necessary for “the maintenance of public order”, and to do so with a degree of immunity from prosecution.
