Guwahati, Dec 19: The Centre has claimed that its efforts towards creating an atmosphere of peace in Northeast since 2014 have yielded results with an 89 percent decline in civilian deaths and as many as 6000 militants laying down arms during the period, an official statement issued on Monday said.
Union minister Anurag Thakur, while speaking at length about the efforts of the government towards creating an atmosphere of peace in Northeast, said an era of peace has dawned in the region since 2014 with insurgency-related violence declining by 80 percent while civilian deaths dropped by 89 percent.
“The government is committed to go beyond armed action to counter terrorism and has worked to create an atmosphere of lasting peace across the region. These peace treatises are a legacy of the achievements of the government,” he said.
Underlining this aspect, Thakur listed the peace agreements signed by the government including the Bodo Accord in January 2020, Bru-Reang Agreement in January 2020, NLFT-Tripura agreement in August 2019, Karbi Anglong Agreement in 2021 and the Assam-Meghalaya Inter State Boundary Agreement in March 2022.
Speaking on the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), Thakur said that AFSPA roll back has been only a matter of discussion all this while but the government rolled it back from a large part of the Northeast, including the whole of Tripura and Meghalaya.
“It remains in force in only three districts of Arunachal Pradesh. Sixty percent of Assam is free from AFSPA. Fifteen police stations under six districts have been taken out of the category of disturbed area, while the disturbed area notification has been removed from 15 police stations in seven districts,” the Union minister informed the media in New Delhi.