Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said the Centre is making efforts to remove the entire northeast from the ambit of the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA), which provides sweeping powers and immunity from criminal prosecution.
“For long, many states in the northeast were under the ambit of AFSPA. But in the past eight years, due to permanent peace and improved law and order situation, we removed the provisions of the Act from several parts of the region,” Modi said at a public meeting at Loringthepi in Assam’s Karbi Anglong district.
The killings of 14 civilians in a botched army operation in Nagaland’s Mon district in December put the spotlight back on AFSPA and renewed demands for its repeal. The Centre in March reduced the disturbed areas under the ambit of the law in the region.
Modi said there has been a 75% drop in violent incidents in the northeast over the past eight years and that is why Meghalaya and Tripura were removed from the ambit of AFSPA.
