NSF condemns Arunachal firing, demands removal of AFSPA from Naga areas

Naga Students' Federation (NSF) on Saturday condemned the firing incident in Arunachal Pradesh, where two civilians were "mistakenly" shot at by Army personnel, and sought strict punishment for the guilty besides complete removal of AFSPA from all Naga-inhabited areas in the Northeast.

The apex Naga students' body in Nagaland, Manipur, Assam and Arunachal Pradesh, in a statement, said it "outrightly rejected the Centre's ploy to please certain sections of Northeast" by removing Armed Forces (Special Powers Act), 1958 from some pockets, while keeping it imposed in a majority of Naga-inhabited areas in the region.

"Two Naga youths Nokphua Wangpan and Ramwang Wangsu were critically injured when 12 Para Special Forces fired upon without any warning while they were returning from the river after fishing early Saturday morning.

"Such acts of the armed forces trampling upon the dignity, existence, freedom and happiness of the Naga people without any remorse under the protection of AFSPA cannot be accepted by the Federation in particular and the Naga people in general," it said.

The Army said that it was a case of "mistaken identity" as there was credible information about the movement of armed insurgents in the area in Tirap district of Arunachal Pradesh.

NSF demanded that justice be delivered to the innocent civilians at the earliest and befitting punishment to the "trigger-happy" jawans.

The federation said it would undertake a series of democratic agitations to press for their demands but did not announce a date for launching the stir.

The Centre had on Thursday announced a reduction in the number of "disturbed areas" under the purview of the contentious law in Nagaland, Assam and Manipur with effect from April 1.

"There is no denying that areas falling under 15 police stations in seven districts of Nagaland will benefit from the Centre's policy but a major chunk of the Naga homeland spread across Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur and Nagaland remain classified as 'disturbed areas'," it said.

It questioned the yardstick used to lift the Act from certain areas of the Northeast as "police stations within the Naga homeland, which have almost perfect law and order records, have been completely left out".

"This step is more like rubbing salt on the wounds of Naga people who are still reeling under the shock of the Oting incident wherein 14 innocent Naga souls were gunned down by armed forces in a botched military operation in December last year," it added.