An impression has gone that the AFSPA as a tool is grossly abused by the 'Indian army'.
It is an election issue and in some constituencies in Manipur, a large section of voters may still be debating the AFSPA issue vis-a-vis merciless killings of innocent Konyak Nagas in Mon district.
A section of BJP leaders also talk about the same, and are generally cautious in drawing out their electoral strategy related to army presence and tackling insurgency.
Manipur has been in the web of insurgency for years. The BJP leaders are also scanning old media reports.
Now, a perplexing question, if the AFSPA is 'bad in law' and a misused tool by the Indian army in Nagaland and Manipur; why do we have ‘fake encounter’ allegations in Mumbai, Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh?
Notably, of 1,788 such “extra judicial” killings across India between 2002 and 2013, Uttar Pradesh had the dubious distinction with the maximum number of 743 fake encounter deaths.
So, the monk-turned-neta Yogi Adityanath cannot be blamed alone, say saffron party leaders.
Closer home in Manipur, it was Congress chief minister Okram Ibobi Singh, who had told on the floor of the Assembly that a militant named Sanjit was eliminated in an ‘encounter’.
Manipur police cop Herojot was part of a 9-member commando force which is supposed to have eliminated Chunkham Sanjit. Now, more importantly, the encounter would have ended up as yet another case in Manipur had not a woman Rabina (an 8-month pregnant) was also killed “in the crossfire”.
The episode had resulted in a high-profile controversy and subsequently a CBI probe. So, yet again, even
cops abuse their guns, bullets and powers. Fortunately, the 'encounter' is not a new or old normal in Nagaland.
The web dictionary Wikipedia says, “An encounter is a euphemism used in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka since the late 20th century
to describe extra-judicial killings by the police or the armed forces of suspected gangsters or terrorists in gun battles”.
The central Home ministry sources say the term "police encounter" was heard the most during Punjab insurgency between 1984 and 1995. Super cop KPS Gill was not from paratroopers !
The infamous forest brigand and sandalwood smuggler Veerappan was killed by the Special Task Force (STF) in an 'encounter' on October 18, 2004 in Tamil Nadu.
The September 19, 2008 ‘encounter’ by Delhi police in which inspector Mohan Chand Sharma was killed along with two suspects in what is now known as the 'Batla House encounter'.
Again 'Indian army' was hardly involved between 2002 and 2006, when 22 deaths classified as "fake encounters" were reported in Gujarat.
Narendra Modi was the state chief minister and the incumbent Union Home Minister in Delhi, Amit Shah, handled the home portfolio in Gujarat.
Manipur has several anecdotes and tragic stories on 'encounters'.
A 410-page petition filed in 2012 in the Supreme Court on behalf of two Manipur-based organizations had cited the instance of a 22-year-old who went looking for a missing cow on his bicycle and was found 'shot dead'.
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In another case a 12-year-old boy was alleged to have been shot dead in a “joint operation” by
Assam Rifles and Manipur police commandos.
The boy was 'suspected' to be a member of Manipur-based group PULF, revealed investigations by a
Supreme Court-appointed high-power commission, headed by the retired judge Santosh Hegde.
The report did not fail to mention that 30 armed security force personnel with Ak-47 and assault Rifles could not overpower the 12-year-old boy and he had to be 'killed'.
Paradoxically often these 'Encounters' come as part of damage control strategy.
These are also considered bitter pills. “In Punjab, the so-called police high handedness under KPS Gill broke the spinal cord of Sikh militancy," a retired IPS officer had said a few years ago.
In Mumbai these proved 'useful' against underworld dons.
This is also because the criminal justice system in India needs corrective steps. The country also needs police reform.
The AFSPA debate could go on; and elections may come, elections may go.
ends
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