‘Disturbed areas’ in northeast under AFSPA to be reduced: Amit Shah | India News

NEW DELHI/GUWAHATI: The Centre has decided to decrease the jurisdiction of ‘disturbed areas’ declared under the AFSPA in Nagaland, Assam and Manipur from April. Union home minister Amit Shah said the decision had been taken on account of significant improvement in the security situation in northeast India. This is the second reduction in AFSPA – for long, a source of resentment in the northeast – within a year. The BJP-led NDA had made restoration of normalcy a key plank of its successful campaign in the recently-held polls.
“A historic day for the northeast! PM Modi led GoI has once again decided to decrease the disturbed areas in Nagaland, Assam and Manipur under AFSPA. This decision has been taken on account of significant improvement in the security situation in northeast India,” he tweeted.

The areas where AFSPA would cease to apply include a district and a sub-division. In Manipur, four police stations – Wangoi, Leimakhong, Nambol and Moirang – have been taken out of its purview, said chief minister N Biren Singh. This brings to 19 the number of police stations in the state from whose jurisdictions the special law has been lifted in a year’s time. In Nagaland, the district of Zunheboto has been taken out, bringing down the number of districts where AFSPA had been in force since 1995 from all the 16 to eight over the past one year.
In Arunachal Pradesh, where the area under three police stations had been classified as “disturbed area”, one more police station has been added to the category requiring the application of AFSPA. “We are witnessing a golden era in the northeast. As on ground, security situation improves due to a host of pro people policies – I express my profound gratitude to PM Modi for further reducing the disturbed areas in Assam, Manipur and Nagaland,” Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma tweeted.