Naga People's Front supremo TR Zeliang slams AFSPA as a 'licence to kill'

KOHIMA: Naga People's Front (NPF) supremo TR Zeliang today lambasted the 'draconian' Armed Forces Special Powers Act on the Assembly floor today.

Terming the contentious AFSPA as a "license to kill", Zeliang said that the Act gives the Armed and Security forces a "free pass to do whatever they want."

Zeliang also condemned the armed forces for the unwarranted firing on Oting village residents, killing at least 13 and wounding several.

"Under AFSPA, any crime committed by armed forces is given complete impunity and so far, according to reliable reports, more than 20,000 innocent lives in North-East India have been lost, besides incidences that stretches to rapes, arrests, torture and extra judicial executions" said TR Zeliang during the 10th session of the 13th Nagaland Legislative Assembly.

Zeliang served twice as the Chief Minister of Nagaland, a state in India, from May 2014 to February 2017 and from July 2017 to March 2018.

On 4 December 2021, a unit of 21st Para Special Forces, the special forces unit, killed six civilians near the Oting village of the Mon district in Nagaland, India. Eight more civilians and a soldier were killed in subsequent violence. The killings were widely condemned with many calling to repeal and revoke the Armed Forces Special Powers Act.

Follow us on Facebook