Controversial AFSPA law extended to Nagaland amid army operations terror

Kohima: The controversial AFSPA law granting security forces powers has been extended for six months in Nagaland, where the military is investigating an ambush that went horribly wrong on Dec. 4. Rights Act. The Armed Forces (Special) term, or AFSPA, gives the military broad powers to operate freely in any place that has been declared a “disturbed area”; no soldier in the area in which the AFSPA is in force can be prosecuted without retribution from the center.
Nagaland human rights groups and even the state government have called for the center to withdraw AFSPA.
Appeals against AFSPA recently turned violent after an ambush by military special forces went horribly wrong in Nagaland on December 4, when they killed 13 returning civilians. while working in a mine at night. One soldier died in a subsequent attack by villagers, who surrounded the rank in fury.
On December 20, the Nagaland council unanimously decided to request the repeal of the northeastern AFSPA, especially the state. A five-member committee has been formed under the leadership of senior official Vivek Joshi to consider the possibility of AFSPA withdrawing from Nagaland.
The Army has also agreed to give access to the Nagaland Special Investigations Team, or SIT, to record the statements of soldiers involved in the December 4 ambush. Nagaland is under the AFSPA.
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The AFSPA has been renewed every six months for several years in Nagaland, which has long remained a “disturbed area”. Declaring a site a “disturbed area” is the first condition for applying AFSPA, a law that has colonial roots and was used to quell protests.