Withdraw AFSPA from the northeast, say rights groups

Human rights organisations from different parts of the northeast states have yet again reiterated that the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), giving special powers to the armed forces, should be withdrawn.

A few NGOs met in a convention against the AFSPA in Guwahati Thursday and passed a resolution to mobilise people against the act and engage with other movements opposing "the draconian law".

They also decided to lobby with the MPs from the region to take up the issue in parliament.

The resolutions were made to mark the 56th year of the act which came into force in 1958.

The act is in force in most parts of the region. Many human rights activists and NGOs have criticised it, complaining of custodial torture, extra-judicial killings, and sexual harassment of women because of the special powers with immunity the act gives the security forces.

The convention was attended by representatives of the Centre for Research and Advocacy, Human Rights Alert, Manab Adhikar Sangram Samiti, WinG-India, North East Dialogue Forum, and the Borok People Human Rights Organization.

"We will try to meet our MPs from northeast and urge them to take up our long-pending demand for repealing the act in parliament...," Babloo Loitongbam, the executive director of Human Rights Alert, said.

Member of WinG-India, Anjuman Ara Begum said sexual violence against women by security forces executing the AFSPA was a serious cause of concern in the region.

The North East Dialogue Forum (NEDF) Thursday wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, urging him to repeal the AFSPA.

In the letter, NEDF consultant P.B.M. Basaiawmoit said the AFSPA limits the powers of the judiciary to take action against cases of false arrests, fake encounters and rapes by the security forces and police.

He said the act was passed by parliament Aug 18, 1958, and was signed by then president Sep 11, 1958, and then invoked by various state governments, namely Nagaland, Tripura, Manipur and Jammu and Kashmir to counter the growth of the insurgency movement.

Urging the prime minister not to extend the AFSPA as it is due so Nov 30, the NEDF suggested that the government repeal the act.

Irom Sharmila Chanu, a human rights activist, has been on an indefinite strike for nearly a decade in Manipur, demanding the withdrawal of the APSPA from the state.

Several human rights groups, including the North East Students' Organisation, have also been demanding withdrawal of the AFSPA.