MHA extends AFSPA in Nagaland for another 6 months

December 30: The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) through a notification issued on Monday extended Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA) in Nagaland for six more months. In a notification released by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), the government cited “disturbed and dangerous condition” in Nagaland as the reasons behind the extension of AFSPA in Nagaland.

The notification stated, “Whereas the Central government is of the opinion that the area comprising the whole of State of Nagaland is in such a disturbed and dangerous condition that the use of armed forces in aid of the civil power is necessary.”

Nagaland has been under AFSPA for almost six decades now and it was not withdrawn even after a framework agreement was signed on 3 August, 2015, by Naga insurgent group National Socialist Council of Nagaland (Isak Muivah) General Secretary Thuingaleng Muivah and government interlocutor R.N. Ravi in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.