Assam govt seeks withdrawal of Disturbed Areas Act, AFSPA from entire state. Know more

The Assam government has called for the Centre do withdraw the Disturbed Areas Act and the Armed Forces Special Powers Act from the entire state. The development came mere days after Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma met Union Home Minister Amit Shah to discuss the same. AFSPA was removed from several parts of the northeastern state last year and currently remains imposed in eight districts. 

“We decided to request the central government to withdraw AFSPA completely from the state of Assam. However, we will abide by the decision of the central government…” said Chief Minister Sarma. 

He however laid emphasis on the state's desire for a complete withdrawal of the stringent law. 

ALSO READ: Himanta Biswa Sarma says his govt aims to completely withdraw AFSPA from Assam by 2023-end

Earlier on Monday the CM had discussed the roadmap for the complete withdrawal of AFSPA from Assam with Home Minister Amit Shah. As per details shared by a state government release, Sarma had also cited the significant improvement in the law and order situation and the drastic fall in deaths of security personnel and civilians as reasons. The northeastern state has also seen many underground cadres of extremist outfits surrendering with huge caches of arms and ammunition following the signing of several peace accords.

The ‘Disturbed Area’ notification has been in force since 1990 in the whole of Assam. AFSPA was removed from the entire State of Assam – except for nine districts – at the beginning of April 2022. The districts under the stringent law later dropped to eight as the Act was withdrawn from the Lakhipur subdivision of Cachar district.

The law empowers the Armed Forces and the Central Armed Police Forces deployed in “Disturbed Areas” to arrest a person without a warrant and enter or search premises without a warrant along with some other actions.

(With inputs from agencies)