Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act
[10] The Armed Forces Special Powers Ordinance of 1942[11] was promulgated by the British colonial government on 15 August 1942 to suppress the Quit India Movement.
[15] The territorial scope of the act also expanded to the seven states of the North-East - Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Tripura, Arunachal Pradesh and Mizoram.
In these districts, Naga underground factions including National Socialist Council of Nagaland (Isak-Muivah) and NSCN (Khaplang) are involved in extortion, recruitment of locals, and rivalry.
[5][19] If the governor of Jammu and Kashmir or the Central Government, is of opinion that the whole or any part of the union territory is in such a disturbed and dangerous condition then this act can be imposed.
In most cases, for example during elections, when the local police may be stretched too thin to simultaneously handle day-to-day tasks, the central government obliges by sending in the BSF and the CRPF.
was extended in nagaland for 6 more months in December (2021) When India presented its second periodic report to the United Nations Human Rights Committee in 1991, members of the UNHRC asked numerous questions about the validity of the AFSPA.
They questioned the constitutionality of the AFSPA under Indian law and asked how it could be justified in light of Article 4 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, ICCPR.
[32] The South Asian Human Rights Documentation Centre argues that the governments' call for increased force is part of the problem.
The use of the AFSPA pushes the demand for more autonomy, giving the people of the North East more reason to want to secede from a state which enacts such powers and the agitation which ensues continues to justify the use of the AFSPA from the point of view of the Indian Government.— South Asian Human Rights Documentation Centre[34]A report by the Institute for Defense Studies and Analysis points to multiple occurrences of violence by security forces against civilians in Manipur since the passage of the act.
On 2 November 2000, in Malom, a town in the Imphal Valley of Manipur, ten civilians were shot and killed while waiting at a bus stop.
The incident, known as the "Malom Massacre", was allegedly committed by the Assam Rifles, one of the Indian Paramilitary forces operating in the state.
Indian officials claim that troops need such powers because the army is only deployed when national security is at serious risk from armed combatants.
Human rights organizations have also asked Indian government to repeal[42] the Public Safety Act, since "a detainee may be held in administrative detention for a maximum of two years without a court order.".
[43] Activists who are working in J&K for peace and human rights include names of Ashima Kaul, Ram Jethmalani, Faisal Khan, Ravi Nitesh (founder of Mission Bhartiyam), Swami Agnivesh, Dr. Sandeep Pandey and many others.
[45][46] A high-power commission headed by the retired Supreme Court judge, N. Santosh Hegde was constituted in January 2013 to probe six encounter deaths in Manipur.
[47] The committee, comprising former Supreme Court judge Santosh Hegde, ex-CEC J M Lyngdoh and a senior police officer, has said in its report that the probe showed that none of the victims had any criminal records.
The committee has suggested fixing a time frame of three months for the central government to decide whether to prosecute security personnel engaged in extrajudicial killings or unruly behaviour in insurgency-hit regions.
After 10 years, the government of India rejected the recommendation made by Justice Jeevan Reddy Commission to repeal the AFSPA.
The second Administratively Reforms Commission (ARC) in its fifth report on "Public Order", recommended to repeal of Armed Forces Special Powers Act, 1958.
The commission recommended to amend the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 inserting a new chapter to deploy the armed forces of the Union in the North eastern States.
