Political and Economic Notes:
Army Personnel Attempts to Defeat Justice and
Righteous Aspirations of Citizens
In 1980 the central govern-
ment had imposed the Armed
Forces (Special Powers) Act.1958
(AFSPA) in Manipur in the name of
countering insurgency. Subse-
quently the AFSPA has been
imposed in other north-eastern
states besides in Jammu&Kashmir
state under some pretext or other.
With that the army personnel
and other para-military forces
engaged in those states in their
“policing” roles have been playing
havoc with the lives of common
innocent citizens in the way of fake
encounter killings, maiming, rape,
plunder and loot, under the
protection of AFSPA with impurity.
The people of those states
have been continuously protesting
the outrages committed by the
army personnel playing havoc with
their lives property and dignity and
have been demanding to punish
the concerned army personnel that
have been committing such ghastly
crimes against common innocent
people. They have been also
demanding for the revocation the
AFSPA in their states and to
safeguard them from the ravages
of the military personnel.
But the rulers of the central
government have been keeping a
deaf ear to the righteous demands
of the affected people to revocate
the AFSPA, particularly on the
argument and pretext that the
military institution is not agreeing
to revoke the AFSPA in the
interests of sovereignty, security
and integrity of our country.
Many officers of the highest
echelon of the military as well the
Lt.governers of those states have
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been voicing and trumpeting the
same reasons about the
inadvisability of revoking the
AFSPA that has become the
hanging rope for the people of
those states in their practical
levels.
From 1979 to 2012 in Manipur
state alone 1, 528 cases of extra
judicial killings (fake encounters)
have occurred besides many
citizens were maimed, raped and
abducted without a trace. Neither
the state nor the concerned military
personnel were made responsible
for these crimes and no one was
punished under the protection of
AFSPA. Not even attempts were
made to find out the culprits even
under the military law and to punish
them.
During the course of time the
military personnel who are
supposed to be working with the
commitment of “safe guarding all
citizens irrespective of religion,
caste, sex, region” have developed
a perception that AFSPA is a
privilege for them for doing the job
of countering internal disturbances
and insurgencies. They even took
it as a privilege to the extent of
unmitigated right to “plunder, kill
and loot” as they please in these
areas. They even perceive that
they should be placed the law and
justice of the land.
On the other hand, the citizens
being the victims to the untold
brutalities of the military personnel
in those states are agitating with
protests opposing the AFSPA
demanding its revocation and
punishments to those military
personnel that committed the
outrages. They are righteous
aspiring for the withdrawal of
AFSPA totally.
A public interest litigation was
filed in the Supreme Court seeking
a probe in to as many as 1528
cases of extra judicial killings that
took place in Manipur. The
Supreme Court rightly responded
to this PIL formed a committee with
3 eminent personalities in public
life-Retired Supreme court justice,
Santosh Hegde former chief
election commissioner, J.M.Lingdo
and ex-DGP Ajay Kumar Singh-to
examine into the allegations and
submit a report on the petition. The
committee which examines the
petition in depth concluded that all
those encounters were fake and
extra judicial killings. Then the
Supreme Court intended to
conduct an enquiry in to all those
incidents of encounters. But the
then Attorney General on behalf of
the government had argued that
there was no necessity to enquire
in to those encounters, since there
was a ‘war situations’ in that state
and that the military was
empowered with extraordinary
powers with AFSPA. But the
Supreme Court not agreeing with
the contention of the government
had constituted in Special
Investigation Team under the CBI
and ordered the framing of charge
sheets in a time bound manner
against Army and Police officers
involved in the encounters.
Accordingly the SIT had filed
charge-sheets in connection with
fake encounters by the Army,
Assam Rifles and police in Manipur.
Class Struggle