Defence Minister Rajnath Singh lauded the Centre and the state government for reducing areas under the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) in the Northeast.
Speaking at the felicitation ceremony of the 1971 War Veterans in Guwahati in Assam on Saturday, Singh said that the work of repealing AFSPA is underway for the last three to four years in northeastern states.
Rajnath Singh said, “It's no small thing that for the last 3-4 years, the work of removing AFSPA is being done in the northeastern states. Recently AFSPA was completely removed from 23 districts of Assam.”
“AFSPA was removed from 15 police stations in Manipur and Nagaland. That in itself means a lot. This is the result of durable peace and stability in this area,” Singh added.
The defence minister also said that all three defence services wanted the removal of the AFSPA from Jammu and Kashmir soon. He said, “Even our Tri services want Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) to be removed from Jammu and Kashmir soon.”
Notably, an award ceremony was organised by the Assam government at the Srimanta Sankaradev Kalakshetra in Guwahati to honour the supreme sacrifice of soldiers who took part in 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War. Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, his cabinet colleagues, and senior government officials were also present at the event.