After a military op in Nagaland resulted in the deaths of 14 civilians, Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad Sangma joined in the chorus for repeal of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) in the northeast. "AFSPA should be repealed," he tweeted. Sangma, the head of National People’s Party, is allied with the BJP-led NDA.
While Sangma was the first to fire the shot, others soon joined in. "AFSPA give powers to the Army to arrest civilians without any warrant, raid houses and also kill people, but there is no action against the security forces. They [the Army] have created a law and order situation,” said Nagaland Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio. After the funeral, Rio tweeted: "Nagaland and the Naga people have always opposed AFSPA. It should be repealed." Rio asserted that since the security forces directly fired upon the civilians without even stopping them for identification, severe action will be initiated against those involved.
Now, demand for repeal of the act has found echoes in the nation's Parliament with National People's Party (NPP) MP Agatha Sangma, a former minister in the UPA government, terming the act as "the elephant in the room which [needs to] be addressed" and seeking the "draconian" law be repealed.
The AFSPA was enacted in 1958 to give armed forces far reaching powers of arrest and detention after an armed insurgency started in Nagaland. Critics have maintained that the controversial law has failed to control insurgency despite giving armed forces powers to act with impunity, sometimes leading to human rights violations.
Sangma said the killing of 14 civilians in Nagaland reminded all of the Malom massacre. in which over 10 civilians were shot dead in Imphal and prompted a 28-year-old Irom Sharmila to go on a 16 year-long hunger strike.
