On May 3, a 'Tribal Solidarity March' was organised in the hill districts of Manipur to protest against the Meitei community's demand for Scheduled Tribe (ST) status. Although clashes have been reported from the region previously, the scale of the ongoing ethnic violence has drawn international condemnation. Tribal women were brutalised, protesters charged with batons, Meitei students were abducted and killed while rebels stole arms and ammunition from cops and engaged in gun fights. More than 180 people have been killed so far. It will soon be a year since the northeastern state went into turmoil and lasting peace seems far away with the Manipur home department extending the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act or AFSPA, 1958, for another six months in the state.
The contentious law, that grants special powers to the Indian Armed Forces to maintain public order in "disturbed areas", has drawn sharp criticism from human rights activists for the unfettered powers it gives Central Armed Forces to indulge in violent exercises in the name of national security. Although the whole of Manipur has been under AFSPA since the 1980s, the status was withdrawn from 19 Metei-dominated areas in April 2023.
Ahead of Lok Sabha elections, the state home department issued a new notification, effective from April 1 2024, stating that the state government has decided to maintain the status quo on the present “Disturbed Area” status in the state due to “prevailing security uncertainty posed by insurgent groups” and keeping in view of the overall law and order situation in the state and the capability of the state machineries – however, the AFSPA status will exclude areas under the jurisdiction of the 19 police stations.
Outlook has previously reported on how cases of sexual assaults, rape, violence, and human rights violations have emerged across states in Northeast India and Jammu and Kashmir that are under AFSPA. Young men would disappear and never return home while young women—including the pregnant and the mothers—would be raped and assaulted, Ninglun Hanghal, an Imphal-based freelance journalist wrote in 2022.
The Oting killings in December 2022 are another stark reminder for the Nagas of the bitter and painful memories of violence they have lived with since the Indian military came to the Naga Hills in 1954. Rupa Chinai, author of Understanding India’s Northeast-A Reporter’s Journal, had written how soldiers, shielded by the AFSPA, were given the licence to arrest or shoot at sight with no questions asked.
Although AFSPA has been extended in Manipur, Union Home Minister Amit Shah recently commented about the possibility of revoking the contentious law and pulling back some troops from Jammu and Kashmir. Is it just a poll gimmick or will the highly-criticised act be removed from the region?
In light of the renewed debates, Outlook looks back at its 2022 issue 'Point Blank', which underlines the tyranny AFSPA entails.
