The Central Government has extended the period of Special Armed Forces Act (AFSPA) in the disturbed districts of Arunachal Pradesh by six months from today. Under this law, security forces in disturbed areas have the right to take various preventive measures including investigation, arrest without warrant.
The Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958 has been extended by six months from Saturday in areas falling under Tirap, Changlang and Longding districts of Arunachal Pradesh and Namsai and Mahadevapur police station areas in Namsai district. All these areas have already been declared as disturbed areas.
Earlier on Friday, the Central Government had extended the period of this privilege law for six months in nine districts of Nagaland and 16 police station areas in four districts. The Ministry of Home Affairs, after reviewing the security situation in these two states, decided to extend the period of AFSPA. This law is applicable in some northeastern states and Jammu and Kashmir. In order to control extremism and terrorism, security forces have been given all kinds of special powers under this law.
AFSPA was implemented in Kashmir in September 1990, when violence against Kashmiri Pandits started in the state and terrorism with the intention of expelling them from the state began. Earlier it was implemented in Kashmir only, but in August 2021 it was implemented in Jammu as well.
