AFSPA Extended Six Months in Manipur, Nagaland, Arunachal as Kamjong Killings Take Toll to Eight

The news

New Delhi and Imphal. The Union Home Ministry on Friday, September 25, extended the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958 (AFSPA) in parts of Manipur, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh for another six months from October 1, after a review of the law and order situation, the three papers report. AFSPA applies only in areas declared “disturbed”; there, The Hindu notes, the Army and Central Armed Police Forces may use even lethal force against anyone acting in contravention of law, arrest and search without warrant, and cannot be prosecuted without the Union government’s sanction. In Manipur the disturbed-area declaration covers the whole State except the jurisdiction of 13 police stations in five valley districts. The ET lists them, across Imphal West, Imphal East, Thoubal, Bishnupur and Kakching. Withdrawn from all valley police stations between April 1, 2022 and April 1, 2023, the Act was reimposed on November 14, 2024 in six of 19 exempted police stations after the ethnic violence that began on May 3, 2023. AFSPA has applied in Manipur since 1981. In Nagaland the Act covers nine districts (including Dimapur and Mon) and 21 police stations in five other districts. In Arunachal it covers Tirap, Changlang and Longding and three police stations in a district bordering Assam. The extension came a day after four Tangkhul Naga civilians, including Vareishim Jajo, 67, and his son Phami Jajo, 43, were shot dead on Thursday at Pilong village in Kamjong district, near the Myanmar border. Police blame the suspected Myanmar-based Kuki National Army-Burma (KNA-B). The Working Committee of the Tangkhul Naga Long said, per The Hindu, that “a Kuki terror group armed heavily with sophisticated weapons crossed the river Namya from Phailen Kuki village of Myanmar”, and alleged backing from Myanmar’s People’s Defence Force; it was the third such attack in Kamjong. The Express counts at least eight Naga and Kuki-Zo dead in about two weeks: two Kuki-Zo women at Leijangphai on September 15, a 17-year-old Naga boy on September 21, a 36-year-old Kuki-Zo man at Wakotphai on September 23, and now four. Houses in Naga villages of Kangpokpi were burnt on September 23-24; the Express says at least 24 houses in two villages, the ET about 41 in three. The Tangkhul Naga Long called a 24-hour shutdown, and a youth body questioned groups under the Suspension of Operations arrangement. The syllabus link is GS3: security in border areas.

Static syllabus linkage

1. AFSPA is triggered by a ‘disturbed area’ declaration under Section 3. Section 3 of the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958 lets the Governor of a State, the Administrator of a Union Territory or the Central Government declare an area “disturbed” if the use of the armed forces in aid of the civil power is necessary; the Central Government’s power to declare was added by an amendment in 1972. Section 4 lets a commissioned officer, warrant officer or non-commissioned officer, after due warning, fire upon or use force, even causing death, against persons acting in contravention of prohibitory orders, destroy arms dumps and fortified positions, arrest without warrant and enter and search premises. Section 5 requires arrested persons to be handed to the nearest police station with the least possible delay. Section 6 bars prosecution or legal proceedings against any person acting under the Act except with the previous sanction of the Central Government.
2. The Supreme Court upheld AFSPA but bound it with safeguards. In Naga People’s Movement of Human Rights v. Union of India (1998), a Constitution Bench upheld the Act’s validity but said a disturbed-area declaration must be for a limited period and reviewed periodically, with six months treated as the review interval, and required the Army to follow its list of ‘Dos and Don’ts’. In Extra Judicial Execution Victim Families Association (EEVFAM) v. Union of India (2016), arising from alleged fake encounters in Manipur, the Court held that there is no absolute immunity and that excessive or retaliatory force is not permitted even in a disturbed area. Those rulings are why extensions come in six-month notifications like today’s.
3. Official committees have recommended repeal, but governments have preferred partial withdrawal. The Justice B.P. Jeevan Reddy Committee, set up after protests in Manipur in 2004, recommended in 2005 that AFSPA be repealed and that necessary powers be placed in the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act with safeguards. The Second Administrative Reforms Commission, in its fifth report on public order, also supported repeal. The Centre has instead reduced the area covered, withdrawing the Act from large parts of Assam, Nagaland and Manipur since 2022, while retaining it in border and conflict districts.
4. The Free Movement Regime and the Myanmar war shape the border threat. India and Myanmar share a border of about 1,643 km across Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur and Mizoram, guarded by the Assam Rifles. Under the Free Movement Regime, residents of border areas, often from the same tribes on both sides, could cross a short distance without visas; in 2024 the Centre announced it would end the regime and fence the whole border. Since the military coup in Myanmar on February 1, 2021, armed resistance groups such as the People’s Defence Forces and ethnic armed organisations control much of the border region. In Manipur, several Kuki-Zo armed groups have been under a Suspension of Operations (SoO) agreement with the Centre and the State since 2008.

Why UPSC loves this

1. AFSPA is a recurring Mains question on security versus rights. UPSC has asked whether AFSPA should be repealed and about the role of the armed forces in internal security. Today’s notification gives a precise current map of where the Act applies, and the Kamjong killings show the security case for its continuation.
2. Border management and cross-border linkages feature in GS3. The syllabus names security challenges in border areas and the linkages of organised crime and terrorism. Questions have asked about the India-Myanmar border, the Free Movement Regime and the impact of Myanmar’s instability on the Northeast.
3. Prelims asks about the law’s mechanics. Who can declare a disturbed area, what sanction is needed for prosecution, and which judgment upheld the Act are standard prelims material, along with which districts or States still have AFSPA.

Analysis

1. The map of AFSPA now follows the geography of the conflict, not a blanket rule. The Act covers all of Manipur except 13 valley police stations, nine Nagaland districts and three Arunachal districts bordering Myanmar. That is a sharper geography than a decade ago: the valley, where the State police dominate, is largely out; the hills and the border are in. The logic is that armed groups operate from the hills and across the Myanmar border, where police capacity is thin. The counter-view is that it creates two tiers of citizens in one State, with hill tribes living under a law the valley no longer does, which feeds the very ethnic resentments driving the violence.
2. Kamjong shows the threat is now cross-border, which strengthens the case for AFSPA in the hills. The killers allegedly crossed the river Namya from a village in Myanmar and returned, according to the Tangkhul body. When attackers use another country’s territory as sanctuary, ordinary policing cannot pursue them, and the Army and Assam Rifles need powers to search and arrest quickly in border villages. This is the strongest argument the government has. But AFSPA’s powers apply to Indian citizens inside India, not to the sanctuaries across the border, so the real remedy is border control and diplomacy with whoever controls the Myanmar side.
3. The Suspension of Operations arrangement is now a political liability. A Tangkhul youth body has questioned the activities of groups operating under the Suspension of Operations arrangement, and the killings are blamed on Kuki groups. SoO camps were meant to contain armed cadres while talks proceeded; if their members or allies are active in violence, the arrangement loses legitimacy with Nagas and Meiteis alike. The Kuki-Zo side, in turn, has lost women and a young man in the same fortnight. The government needs verifiable monitoring of SoO camps, or the arrangement will be seen as protection for one side.
4. Forty-five years of extensions suggest the Act has become a substitute for politics. AFSPA has applied in Manipur since 1981, and it has been renewed every six months, with brief withdrawals, for most of that time. A law meant for temporary aid to civil power has become a permanent feature of governance. The Supreme Court’s six-monthly review requirement has become a formality rather than a real test. The honest view is that the Act can be withdrawn only when police capacity, border control and political settlements make it unnecessary — and that the renewals themselves are an index of how far that goal remains.
5. The papers’ different house counts show the information fog of an ethnic conflict. The Express reports 24 houses burnt in two Naga villages of Kangpokpi, while the ET reports about 41 in three. In an ethnic conflict, numbers are themselves contested and used to mobilise communities. For administrators, accurate and quickly published figures reduce rumour; for readers, the lesson is to report ranges and sources rather than pick the larger number.

Administrator's brainstorm