Photo: PTI
The Tripura government machinery has revoked the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA), as insurgency is on the wane in the State. The Chief Minister Manik Sarkar announced this decision after a meeting with his Council of Ministers held in the state on Wednesday.
The decision on the act that has been into force since February 1997, came less than a month after the election to the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council. The CPI(M)-led Left emerged victorious, though losing by a nine per cent vote to a tribal party. Tribal parties such as the Indigenous Nationalist Party of Tripura and the Indigenous Peoples Front of Tripura had been persistently demanding the withdrawal of the Act, stating that it was aimed at nothing but suppressing the State’s 33 per cent tribal population.
The Chief Minister told that the Left front government had earlier tried to repeal the AFSPA, but had not been successful in getting the consent of the security forces, in his statement to the media. “The situation has changed to a great extent now,” Sarkar remarked. He further said that the State government had reviewed ‘security matters and the Council of Ministers had eventually responded with a green signal to the decision of withdrawal. The meeting also decided to allow movement of traffic on the Assam-Agartala National Highway till midnight.
Last year in the month of November, the Act which confers sweeping powers on the armed forces, was extended for another six months in the State. The AFSPA had been in force in the State’s 26 police station areas. In four police station zones, the Act was partially enforced.
Tags: AFSPA Manik Sarkar Tripura
