‘Disturbed area’ tag extended by MHA for 3 Arunachal districts bordering Assam

Oct. 1: On Friday, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) issued a notification extending the ‘disturbed area’ tag under the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) for 3 districts of Arunachal Pradesh bordering Assam. The three districts where this tag was extended are Longding, Tirap and Changlang. The order was issued by Additional Secretary Piyush Goyal.

Apart from this, the areas which lies within the jurisdiction of Namsai and Mahadevpur police stations were also declared as ‘disturbed.’ The ‘Disturbed area’ tag was extended for 6 more months in the wake of recent insurgent activities. The order will remain in force till 31 March, 2022.

AFSPA is imposed in areas where the central armed forces are deemed to provide aid to civil authorities. For AFSPA to be valid, an area must be declared ‘disturbed’ either by the central or the state governments under Section 3 of the Act.