By Our Reporter
SHILLONG, Dec 7: Former chief minister and All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) leader Mukul M. Sangma said Meghalaya’s handling of insurgency and terrorism should be a case study for the Centre and for the entire country.
He said this with reference to the killing of 14 civilians by an elite unit of the Army in Nagaland’s Mon district on December 4.
“The Centre should carry out a case study on how some states, especially Meghalaya, have dealt with problems like insurgency and terrorism,” Sangma told reporters.
The party organised at a candlelight vigil at Police Bazar organised by the AITC in memory of the victims of the Mon massacre.
“We urge the authorities concerned to ensure justice. In this nation, every individual or citizen must have a sense of belongingness and we collectively build this nation. This is the essence of our democracy. Therefore, there should be no space left for any citizen to feel they are deprived of justice,” he said.
Sangma asserted all measures must be taken to ensure that justice is served. If a state can deal with the problem of insurgency by itself without invoking the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, there is no need for it, he said.
“I think the people of the Northeast understand how complex it is to deal with the insurgency. But Meghalaya has demonstrated its capability without having resorted to adopting this draconian law. I think this is something the Centre should take cognisance of for dealing with insurgency in the right perspective,” Sangma said.
State AITC president, Charles Pyngrope mourned the death of 14 civilians in Nagaland and said they would like to convey their condolences to the bereaved families.
“We also pray that God gives them the strength to bear this immense loss and be with them through the troubled times,” he said.
Assembly Speaker Metbah Lyngdoh and Home Minister Lahkmen Rymbui have also endorsed the demand for repealing the AFSPA.
Lyngdoh, also the UDP president said the AFSPA is not a solution as it has not solved the issue of insurgency in the region.
“The recent killing of civilians in Nagaland is not directly connected with insurgency, so it is a clear message that the AFSPA has not solved insurgency in this region,” the Speaker said.
The insurgency can be solved through dialogue and not bullets, he added.
Recounting Meghalaya’s anti-insurgency operations that were undertaken by the state police, Lyngdoh appealed for the state machinery to be given the opportunity to handle the internal crisis.
“We should have faith in our police; they have the personnel, the knowledge, the skills, the language and mobility to enable greater effectiveness,” he said, reiterating that the AFSPA should go.
Rymbui said that the AFSPA has outlived its utility and it is time for the Centre to repeal it.
“We have seen that the district administration has most of the time been able to tackle any law-and-order problem in Meghalaya,” he said.
“This is not the first time that this kind of unrest has taken place due to the invoking of the AFSPA by the armed forces,” Rymbui added.
Repeal Act: Agatha in Lok Sabha
By Our Reporter
SHILLONG, Dec 7: National People’s Party (NPP) MP Agatha Sangma on Tuesday made an impassioned appeal in Parliament to repeal the draconian Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act forthwith saying instead of countering insurgency it has only caused death of many innocent people in the Northeast including the recent killings in Nagaland.
Raising the matter during the zero hour, the Tura MP said that it is high time the highly controversial act which gives unfettering power to army in the region in the name of combating insurgency should be scrapped.
She also reminded that a central government appointed high power committee headed by Justice Jeevan Reddy had already recommended for repealing this draconian act from the region since it has not been able to contain insurgency but only caused killing and torture of innocent people.
Agatha had moved an adjournment motion notice in Lok Sabha over the demand to repeal the act but was not allowed by the Speaker. Instead, she was allowed to raise the serious matter in the Lok Sabha during zero hour.
Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad Sangma and Nagaland Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio have also demanded the removal of the AFSPA following the Nagaland firing incident, where 14 civilians lost their lives. Agatha said she is echoing the mass voice of the civil society of the entire region besides her own party NPP.
AFSPA allows security forces the power to search, arrest and open fire to maintain public order in four of India’s seven Northeastern states. Earlier on Saturday, an Army unit in Nagaland mistook a group of villagers for insurgents and opened fire, killing 14 civilians in the security operation at an India-Myanmar border district of Mon in the Oting village.
Last year, Union Minister Kiren Rijiju in a written reply in the Lok Sabha had ruled out repeal of AFSPA. “At present, there is no proposal to repeal the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA), 1958,” he had said.
“It is high time that the elephant in the room be addressed by repealing the AFSPA,” Agatha said. Incidentally, the contentious act has been criticised by all cutting across the party lines at different times but neither the BJP nor the Congress have repealed it during their tenures prompting the former Union Minister to use the idiom.