18 years after the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) was enforced in Tripura, the state government has decided to withdraw the Act."In view of the significant taming of terrorism in Tripura, the council of ministers decided to withdraw the AFSPA from the entire state," Chief Minister ManikSarkar told. "The security forces recently exhaustively reviewed the law and order situation in the state. Considering the reports of the security forces, the council of ministers decided to recommend to the union home ministry to issue a notification to withdraw the AFSPA," he said.

"The decisions were taken in view of the decrease in militancy-related incidents in Tripura over the last few years. However, the security forces would be watchful over the situation," Sarkar said."When the Act was imposed there were only 42 police stations and two-third of the entire police station areas were under this act," CM Sarkar said

AFSPA empowers to security forces with unlimited powers to shoot at sight, arrest anybody without a warrant and carry out searches without consent. The central act was enforced in Tripura on 16 February, 1997 when terrorism was at its peak in the state, which shares an 856-km border with Bangladesh. Many local rights groups and political parties in Tripura had accused the act as "draconian" and demanded its repeal. Tribal parties such as the Indigenous Nationalist Party of Tripura and the Indigenous Peoples Front of Tripura had been demanding the withdrawal of the Act for a long time, saying that it is aimed at suppressing the State’s 33 percent tribal population.

By Premji