Centre reimposes AFSPA in 6 ‘volatile’ Manipur areas | India News

NEW DELHI: The Centre on Thursday restored the ‘disturbed area’ status of six police stations across Manipur’s five districts — Imphal West, Imphal East, Jiribam, Kangpokpi and Bishnupur — under the controversial Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958, amid the recent spurt in ethnic strife in these areas.
The grounds cited were continuing “volatile situation” and “ongoing ethnic violence” in the state and “intermittent firing… with several instances of active participation of insurgent groups in heinous acts of violence”.
First expansion of area under Afspa during Modi’s tenure
The move to withdraw Afspa from Sekmai and Lamsang in Imphal West district; Lamlai in Imphal East district; Jiribam in Jiribam district; Leimakhong in Kangpokpi district; and Moirang in Bishnupur district is unusual in many ways.
Firstly, this is the first time since Modi govt assumed office in 2014 that the area under Afspa within a state is being expanded; in fact, the area in the North-East under Afspa has remarkably shrunk over the past decade. Secondly, rather than Manipur govt which has been regularly issuing Afspa extension orders for the state, Centre chose this time to revisit the state govt’s notification.
A home ministry official explained that Afspa grants concurrent powers to Centre and state govt to do so; and it helps that BJP is in office at both levels. Interestingly, all the areas where Afspa has been brought back are in the Valley, which is dominated by Meiteis. The move to reimpose Afspa in jurisdiction of six PS is also unusual as it comes midway through validity of the last notification, which was effective from Oct 1, 2024 to March 30, 2025. An officer said that a detailed assessment regarding Afspa applicability in Manipur, despite recurrent ethnic violence since May last year that has claimed around 230 lives so far, was not made earlier due to preoccupation of security agencies with restoring peace.
“But with the ethnic violence failing to resolve, there was no option but to bring back Afspa in violence-prone areas to facilitate coordinated operations by the security forces, including the Army, and rein in armed miscreants active in ‘fringe’ areas,” an officer told TOI.