The Centre decided to extend the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA) for six months starting on October 1 due to insurgent groups’ ongoing extortion from enterprises, state administration officials, and organisations in Nagaland and parts of Arunachal Pradesh, claims Home Ministry sources.
The NSCN (Isak-Muivah) faction, which is ‘deeply’ involved in enforcing ‘taxes,’ a cover for extortion in various northeastern states, they claimed, is still in talks with the Center. The AFSPA was extended, nonetheless, in part due to the continued threat posed by an armed breakaway group of the NSCN (IM) led by the group’s former ‘commander-in-chief,’ Phunthing Shimrang.
At Ruili in China’s Yunan province, Shimrang is rumoured to be hiding out along with a large number of armed NSCN cadre. Twelve districts in Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh, where the NSCN (IM) is also powerful in Tirap and Changlang districts, have had the application of the AFSPA expanded by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA).
In addition to 15 police station areas in six Manipur districts and 23 Assam districts, the AFSPA was removed from 15 police station areas in seven Nagaland districts in May of this year.
According to sources in the Nagaland government, the ongoing extortion by not only the NSCN(IM), but also the Naga National Political Groups (NNPGs), an umbrella organisation of seven former insurgent outfits, was the driving force behind the most recent decision to maintain AFSPA in some areas of Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh. These include the NNC-GDRN, GPRN-NSCN, FGN, NNC, NPGN-NNC, and NSCN(R) (NA). N Khitovi Zhimomi is the convenor of the NNPGs.
Senior police officer: ‘The single biggest factor in the expansion of AFSPA was the imposition of ‘taxes’ (read: extortion) across all establishments in Nagaland and parts of Arunachal Pradesh, which is rampant and has been going on for several years.’ He also claimed that the Nagaland political dispensation was unwilling to stop the practise.
The sources claimed that the Centre’s decision to maintain ASFPA was also motivated by covert arms trade, the spread of weapons, and the NSCN (IM avowed )’s objective to be a sovereign and autonomous entity.
The NSCN (IM) claims that it obtains ‘legal tax’ from ‘its citizens.’ The insurgent group even went so far as to create a ‘Annual Budget Proposal for the Fiscal Year 2021-22’ in which it aimed to raise Rs 8.89 crore from ‘market/ shop tax,’ transportation, cement, chicken feed, poultry, piggery, and other enterprises.
According to sources in the home ministry, the Center is still in talks with the NSCN (Isak-Muivah) faction, which is ‘deeply’ involved in levying ‘taxes,’ which are extortion in various northeastern states. However, the AFSPA was extended because to the threat posed by an NSCN (IM) splinter unit commanded by the organization’s former ‘commander-in-chief.’
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