NEW DELHI: Unabated extortion from businesses and state administration officials and organisations by insurgent groups in Nagaland and parts of Arunachal Pradesh is behind the Centre’s decision to extend the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA) by six months beginning October 1, according to Home Ministry sources.
They said the Centre continues to hold talks with the NSCN (Isak-Muivah) group, which is “deeply” involved in imposing “taxes”, a euphemism for extortion in some states of the northeast. However, the AFSPA extension is also because a splinter, armed faction of the NSCN (IM) led by the outfit’s former ‘commander-in-chief Phunthing Shimrang, remains a threat to peace in the state.
Shimrang is suspected to be in hiding, along with many armed NSCN cadre at Ruili in China’s Yunan province. The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) extended the application of AFSPA in a dozen districts of Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh where too the NSCN (IM) is influential in Tirap and Changlang districts.
In May this year, AFSPA was withdrawn from 15 police station areas of seven Nagaland districts, besides as many police station areas of six Manipur districts and 23 Assam districts.
Nagaland government sources said the latest decision to continue with AFSPA in parts of Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh was prompted by the ceaseless extortion by not only the NSCN(IM) but also the Naga National Political Groups (NNPGs), an umbrella organisation of seven former insurgent outfits. These include the GPRN-NSCN, FGN, NNC, NPGN-NNC, NSCN(R) and the NNC-GDRN (NA). The NNPGs is led by its convenor N Khitovi Zhimomi.
“The imposition of ‘taxes’ (read extortion) across all establishments in Nagaland and parts of Arunachal Pradesh is rampant and has been on for several years and was the single biggest consideration for the extension of AFSPA,” a senior police officer told TNIE. He said the Nagaland political dispensation was unwilling to put a stop to the practice, a said a senior police officer.
The Centre’s rationale for continuing with ASFPA, the sources said, was also because of clandestine arms trafficking, weapons proliferation and the NSCN (IM)’s “avowed aim” to be a sovereign and an independent entity.
On its part, the NSCN (IM) says it collects “legitimate tax” from “its citizens”. The insurgent outfit, which is holding peace talks with the Centre, went so far as to publish an “Annual Budget Proposal for the Fiscal Year 2021-22” in which it sought to collect Rs 8.89 crore by way of ‘market/ shop tax,’ transport, cement, chicken feed, poultry, piggery and other businesses.
Threat from NSCN (IM) splinter group
Home ministry sources said the Centre continues to hold talks with the NSCN (Isak-Muivah) group, which is “deeply” involved in imposing “taxes”, a euphemism for extortion in some states of the northeast. However, the AFSPA extension is because of tjhreat posed by a splinter faction of the NSCN (IM) led by the outfit’s former ‘commander-in-chief