Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), is a special Act of the Indian Parliament to be applied in any part of the country if it is declared disturbed area. The need of imposing the Act arises out of an unusual situation in a particular area that is neither normal nor usual. Army usually has its stations in different parts of the country but its deployment in a particular region or sector is a decision taken by various components of the union government in consultation with the state government. In J&K State, a proxy war has been launched by our hostile neighbour by inciting, abetting and sponsoring armed uprising in Kashmir in the name of "struggle for freedom." A large number of local youth have been lured to training camps set up by the enemy country on the soil of the part of Kashmir under its illegal occupation. Now, what actually our army and security forces are required to do is to fight the militants trained in those camps but actually belonging to Kashmir and returning to Kashmir to fight the Indian army and security forces. In a sense it is an army required to fight a civilian armed insurgency. The first question to be asked is why the local government failed to scuttle any effort by the hostile country to lure its youth to the camps? Why did the elected government take no preventive measures when it came to know that after the rigged elections of 1986, there were dissident elements hobnobbing with the agents of a hostile neighbouring country? Now the Army has been deployed to deal with a very unusual situation in which the enemy is moving around as a civilian entity, fighting only covertly and aiming at attacks on crowds and on public property to wreck law and order in the State. This has necessitated induction of the AFSPA, which the then State Government recommended and appreciated. Deployment of armed forces to accomplish the task of eradicating armed insurgency from the state also meant that defence personnel could meet with serious challenges and make scarifies of their life while taking on the armed insurgents. It also meant that the troops had to deal with such civilian elements as had become accomplices to armed insurgency according to their information. The army is not and did not behave as an enemy though vested interests do try to project it as enemy. It had to secure the population and itself as well against militant attacks. The army man too has human rights and he also needs protection of his rights. Therefore to deal with this very unusual situation, the AFSPA was promulgated purely with a view to restore normalcy in the state as early as possible. With the passage of time, army has controlled insurgency to good extent but the scenario of infiltration has not ceased permanently. The real problem is that Pakistan continues to keep the terrorist training camps intact on PoK soil; it continues to give all possible help to the terrorists and helps them cross the LoC and sneak into Indian part of Kashmir for perpetrating their perfidy. Army intelligence reports say that anything over 1000 well-armed and well-equipped terrorists are waiting along the LoC to infiltrate into J&K. Army has caught many spies and obtained information from them. Additionally, it is found that Pakistan Army is giving them cover by opening fire on our forward posts. This is to distract the attention of our security forces on the border and let the infiltration take place.
The strange thing is that the political party leading the coalition government in the state is demanding that AFSPA be withdrawn. The party in opposition, going a step further, demands that the army should be withdrawn from the state. This being so, none of the two is prepared to tell us how many armed infiltrators are waiting along the LoC for infiltration? They are not prepared to tell us whether the armed infiltrators have agreed to return to their original places in PoK and Pakistan and let Kashmiris manage their affairs? Have these parties ever asked the insurgents to lay down their arms and rejoin the fold? These political parties know that they are not in a position to demand anything from the insurgents but they can demand anything from the army. Therefore to carry forward their political agenda, they demand withdrawal of AFSPA. This is done to win favour with the separatists and protesting mobs, something like winning negative popularity. But the army and defene ministry cannot go by the political agenda of local political parties. They have the larger interests of security of the country in view. It cannot let the army face embarrassment just because of wayward moves of a civilian government. There is a realization among the army that some of the areas and segments in the state where militancy has come down considerably could be declared as non-disturbed areas and thus army would be withdrawn from these areas and with that the AFSPA will also go. But this is not a unilateral decision of the State Government. The Defence Ministry has to be party to it and unless it is convinced, no area can be declared un-disturbed. In final analysis, the State Government and the Defence Ministry have to put heads together to take a holistic view of the ground situation and take a cautious decision about AFSPA |
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