Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act fully withdrawn from Tripura and Meghalaya: Home ministry

NEW DELHI: The Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958, has been fully rolled back from Tripura and Meghalaya, and applies only in select police stations or districts of other northeastern states like Assam, Manipur, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh, the home ministry told the Lok Sabha on Tuesday.
Citing the 71% decline in insurgency incidents, 60% dip in security personnel killings and 82% decrease in civilian fatalities in 2023 as compared to 2014, Nityanand Rai, in reply to a question, shared that this has led to significant reduction in AFSPA coverage of the northeast.
For instance, he said, the Act – labelled by several stakeholders, including citizens and civil society groups as ‘draconian’ – stood completely withdrawn from Tripura with effect from May 27, 2015 and from Meghalaya starting April 1, 2018. It is also totally rolled back from all but four districts of Assam; and three police stations of Namsai district and three other districts of Tirap, Changlang and Longding in Arunachal Pradesh.
In Manipur, Rai said, AFSPA has been withdrawn from 19 police stations across seven districts. It is now only partly applicable in Nagaland, with the coverage limited to eight districts and 21 police stations of five other districts.