Arunachal Chief Minister Nabam Tuki has urged the Centre to urgently review the decision of extending the Armed Forces Special Powers' Act (AFSPA) to all the districts of Arunachal Pradesh bordering Assam.
The Chief Minister called on Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh at New Delhi today and expressed concern at the Centre's decision to extend AFSPA to the peaceful districts of the state.
Terming the decision as unilateral, he said it was not taken in consultation with the state government.
Tuki highlighted that Arunachal Pradesh has been the most peaceful state in the NE Region with no history of home grown insurgency and asserted that the three districts of Tirap, Changlang and Longding are insurgency infected as ultras from other neighboring states and Myanmar operate in these areas, an official communique informed.
AFSPA has been in force in these three districts since 1991 after they were categorized as disturbed area by Union Ministry of Home Affairs.
It was subsequently extended to a 20 km belt in districts bordering Assam.
Against this historical backdrop of AFSPA in Arunachal Pradesh, the chief minister categorically denied the need for extending the ambit of AFSPA to border districts of the state in entirety as notified by the Ministry of Home Affairs recently.
Singh assured Tuki to examine and review this decision of extending AFSPA in the state.
An official level meeting between senior officials from the state and the ministry will be held tomorrow in New Delhi as a follow up of CM's meeting with Singh for early resolution of the issue, the communique added.
