GUWAHATI: Taking note of the killing of civilians by the security forces in a botched-up ambush in Nagaland, the Working Group on Human Rights in India and the UN (WGHR) has raised pitch for the repeal of the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act.
The WGHR pointed out that the chief ministers of Nagaland, Meghalaya and Manipur had renewed calls to repeal AFSPA. It said the controversial law was already lifted from Meghalaya and Tripura a few years ago.
“India’s human rights record is to be reviewed before its peers at the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in October 2022. Repealing this Act would be a positive development to report to the UNHRC at that time,” the rights body said.
Expressing solidarity with “the families of coal miners and protestors who lost their lives in Nagaland” on December 4 and 5, the WGHR said, “This was not the first time that gross human rights violations were committed under the AFSPA”.
“…Despite the historic judgment of the Supreme Court of India in the Extra-judicial Execution Victim Families Association, Manipur case, followed by a CBI investigation into 39 out of the 1,528 cases of extra-judicial killings in that state, the Government of India is yet to grant prosecution sanction against any member of the armed forces found to be involved in the killings,” the rights body lamented.