Minister of State for Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju on Wednesday stated that area falling under the jurisdiction of 16 Police Stations areas of various districts of Arunachal Pradesh bordering Assam have been declared as 'disturbed area' for a period of six months.
In a written reply to a question by Communist Party of India (CPI) leader D Raja in the Rajya Sabha today, Rijiju said that the areas have been pronounced 'disturbed' along with whole of Tirap, Changlang and Longding districts.
In order to control the anti-national and criminal activities of various militant groups including NDFB(S), ULFA(I) and NSCN(K), various districts of Arunachal Pradesh bordering Assam were declared 'disturbed area' under Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958 for a brief period.
The Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA) 1958, confers special powers upon armed forces in what the act calls "disturbed areas" in the states of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura. It was later extended to Jammu and Kashmir as the Armed Forces (Jammu and Kashmir) Special Powers Act in July 1990.