Union Home Minister Amit Shah at Mankachar BOP of Indo-Bangladesh border in Assam. (Twitter/@AmitShah)Union Home Minister Amit Shah Tuesday said he was confident that the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) would soon be revoked from the entire state of Assam. Speaking at a ceremony to present the President’s Colour honour to the Assam Police in Guwahati, Shah said that the Act had been in force since 1990 and extended sixty times since.
“After eight years of Modi, the [law and order] situation is such that the Act has been lifted from 23 districts in Assam. I am confident that soon the AFSPA will be revoked from the entire state,” said Shah, who is on a two-day visit to the state. “At one point, there was Armed Forces Special Power Act, now the youth will get vikas (development) and ujjwal (bright) future special power,” he said, lauding the work of the Himanta Biswa Sarma-led state government which completed one year on Tuesday.
The contentious AFSPA, which lends near-unbridled powers to the security forces, was revoked from parts of the Northeast earlier this year.
Shah claimed that insurgency was rapidly declining in Assam with militant outfits signing peace deals with the state government. “The day is not far when there won’t be even one insurgent outfit in Assam,” said Shah.
Best of Express Premium
The Union home minister heaped praises on the state police, saying it had been successful in solving the problems of cross-border infiltration, cow-smuggling and rhino poaching. “There are few parallels to the tough circumstances Assam police has dealt with,” he said.
Assam is the tenth state in the country to receive the President’s Colour, the highest honour given to any military or police unit in recognition of exceptional service rendered to the nation, both in peace and wartime.
- The Indian Express website has been rated GREEN for its credibility and trustworthiness by Newsguard, a global service that rates news sources for their journalistic standards.
