SHILLONG, Dec 9: UDP working president, Paul Lyngdoh, has advocated for repeal of Armed Forces Special Power Act (AFSPA), 1958.
Addressing reporters here on Thursday, he said, “There is no space for such a law in a civilised country and more so in the case of the North East where you have small ethnic groups which can be easily suppressed by such laws to try to deal with even ordinary issues of law and order.”
He also maintained that AFSPA encourages illegal extrajudicial killings.
“Nowhere can we have two sets of law for the same country. You have issues of riots, and militancy is not only in North East. It is an all-India phenomenon. So, therefore, to confine AFSPA only to the region of North East is already an acknowledgement that the Centre considers the region to be a problem area,” the UDP leader said.
“This is the root cause of the basic problem with AFSPA. It also encourages the men in uniform to overtake the political system. How can you justify such a law,” he added.
