Armed Forces Special Power Act
The Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA), was passed on September 11, 1958 by the Parliament of India.It conferred special powers upon armed forces in what the language of the act calls "disturbed areas" in the states of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura. It was later extended to Jammu and Kashmir as the The Armed Forces (Jammu and Kashmir) Special Powers Act, 1990 in July 1990.
According to the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), in an area that is proclaimed as "disturbed", an officer of the armed forces has powers to:
- "Fire upon or otherwise use force, even to the causing of death, against any person who is acting in contravention of any law" against "assembly of five or more persons" or possession of deadly weapons.
- To arrest without a warrant and with the use of "necessary" force anyone who has committed certain offenses or is suspected of having done so
- To enter and search any premise in order to make such arrests.
- It gives Army officers legal immunity for their actions. There can be no prosecution, suit or any other legal proceeding against anyone acting under that law. Nor is the government's judgment on why an area is found to be "disturbed" subject to judicial review.
hmm afspa. i think itz in the news due to d naxal attacks n violent acts goin around jammu kashmir
ReplyDeleteThe AFSPA is in the news because the separatists want the CRPF and other military forces to be completely diluted from the state of jammu and kashmir. They "Claim" that the armed forces have misused their powers and used it against the protesting mob and thus have killed more civilians than what the terrorists have killed.Even national conference leader Omar Abdullah wants the armed forces to be removed from some districts of kashmir.
ReplyDeleteaffirmatively said due to j&k issue.To curtail the powers of army officers so that the life of lay man is not lost.
ReplyDeleteThe AFSPA is in the news because of the on-going "protests" in J&K. This act in its statement appears to be undemocratic, but, when people in a democracy demand freedom, I guess it all makes sense.
ReplyDeleteIf AFSPA is diluted from J&K,There will not be any law and order to control the Activities caused by separatists.Millitants are waiting across the border to cross over to india before winters begin.Omar abdullah can't handle all this.AFSPA is must for disturbed areas..there is no question of freedom..whom they are asking for freedom??? and for what purpose ???
ReplyDeleteAFSPA was in news for the last few months due to the protests by people of Kashmir valley(mostly youth and young children)against it.Protests were started when a school going kid was hit by a teargas shell which later led to his death, the tragic incident resulted in a sympathy wave which was used by the separatists to polarize the youth of the valley against the Indian state and Indian army.There were some aspects of these protests that were different from the earlier protests.Firstly, protesters included young school going kids and teens.Secondly, slingshots were used by the protesters and it was projected as a battle between the stones of the protesters and guns of the army and it was argued that army's use of force, provided by AFSPA was being misused against peaceful protestors(stone pelters ).However, the facts suggest otherwise. Not a single protester was killed by the army for the simple reason that the army is never involved in operations where civilian protesters are involved.It was the J&K police and paramilitary CRPF which was called in by the state govt. to get the situation under control. The army is used only in counter-insurgency operations against the militants. In addition to this I also find the assumptions behind the argument,that the dilution of AFSPA will lead to law and order problems partially flawed.Because firstly, the army does not maintain law & order of the state and secondly army's role is restricted only to disturbed areas(mostly along the LOC).Further knowing that the terror tap is not going to be turned down by pak army/ISI in the near future, it is illogical and highly counter productive to remove AFSPA now and bring it back at a later date due to the increase in militancy then. Thus status quo seems to be the best option for the govt. of the day.
ReplyDelete