The Government’s proposal to dilute the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) has not found favour with the security forces as they want the act “in totality” to deal with terrorism and insurgency.
The Union Home Ministry has proposed to dilute some sections of the Act, including Clause 4, which give powers to security forces to “shoot to kill”. Facing criticism from human rights organisations and political leaders of Jammu & Kashmir and Manipur, the Ministry prepared a draft listing the amendment and sought the response of the Defence and Law Ministries. Setting up of a grievance redressal mechanism in case of misuse or abuse of the AFSPA was also mooted in the set of proposals.
The Government was also mulling over a proposal to withdraw the Act altogether from certain “relatively peaceful” parts of Jammu & Kashmir. The security forces were asked to give their opinion on this proposal and sources said a decision would be taken only after analysing the situation.
Clause 4 of the AFSPA allows an officer of the armed forces to open fire at a ‘suspect’ and provides him immunity even if the injury leads to death. The clause also prohibits the assembly of five or more persons or the carrying of weapons and explosive substances.
The proposed amendment drops words like “even to the causing of death” while retaining the language of the rest of the clause. The deletion of the word “death” as a consequence of an armed action was aimed at softening the tone and tenor of the clause to pacify the agitating political parties and human rights organisations.
Elaborating upon their reservations to the amendments, sources said that most of the times the operational commanders take all steps necessary steps to avoid a ham-handed approach and use force with due care to avoid collateral damage. They said the number of casualties suffered by the armed forces, including officers, in fighting militants in J&K bore testimony to the fact that force was used in a very judicious manner. Moreover, a very stringent punitive system was in place to deal with any human rights violations and the punishments, including life term, were pronounced in a very short time after the trial commenced, sources said.
Given this background and operational environment, officials said that any dilution in the Act would hamper the functioning of the commanders. The security forces were deployed in “extraordinary circumstances”, they added. With the near-absence of a functioning State administration, the security forces therefore needed “extraordinary powers” to deal with the situation and act effectively to bring normalcy and peace to the area, they said.
These views would be conveyed to the Government within the next few days, sources said, adding that the situation in the two border States was far from normal and the existing AFSPA was needed for tackling terrorism and insurgency there.
The AFSPA was promulgated in J&K in 1990 and the entire Manipur State was covered by the Act in 1980 after some parts were brought under the ambit of the Act in 1958.
The Union Home Ministry has proposed to dilute some sections of the Act, including Clause 4, which give powers to security forces to “shoot to kill”. Facing criticism from human rights organisations and political leaders of Jammu & Kashmir and Manipur, the Ministry prepared a draft listing the amendment and sought the response of the Defence and Law Ministries. Setting up of a grievance redressal mechanism in case of misuse or abuse of the AFSPA was also mooted in the set of proposals.
The Government was also mulling over a proposal to withdraw the Act altogether from certain “relatively peaceful” parts of Jammu & Kashmir. The security forces were asked to give their opinion on this proposal and sources said a decision would be taken only after analysing the situation.
Clause 4 of the AFSPA allows an officer of the armed forces to open fire at a ‘suspect’ and provides him immunity even if the injury leads to death. The clause also prohibits the assembly of five or more persons or the carrying of weapons and explosive substances.
The proposed amendment drops words like “even to the causing of death” while retaining the language of the rest of the clause. The deletion of the word “death” as a consequence of an armed action was aimed at softening the tone and tenor of the clause to pacify the agitating political parties and human rights organisations.
Elaborating upon their reservations to the amendments, sources said that most of the times the operational commanders take all steps necessary steps to avoid a ham-handed approach and use force with due care to avoid collateral damage. They said the number of casualties suffered by the armed forces, including officers, in fighting militants in J&K bore testimony to the fact that force was used in a very judicious manner. Moreover, a very stringent punitive system was in place to deal with any human rights violations and the punishments, including life term, were pronounced in a very short time after the trial commenced, sources said.
Given this background and operational environment, officials said that any dilution in the Act would hamper the functioning of the commanders. The security forces were deployed in “extraordinary circumstances”, they added. With the near-absence of a functioning State administration, the security forces therefore needed “extraordinary powers” to deal with the situation and act effectively to bring normalcy and peace to the area, they said.
These views would be conveyed to the Government within the next few days, sources said, adding that the situation in the two border States was far from normal and the existing AFSPA was needed for tackling terrorism and insurgency there.
The AFSPA was promulgated in J&K in 1990 and the entire Manipur State was covered by the Act in 1980 after some parts were brought under the ambit of the Act in 1958.
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