NEW DELHI, Aug 7 - Assam will continue to be disturbed area till month-end, with the Centre on Monday extending the disturbed area under the controversial Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA) for one more month, citing various violent activities by insurgent groups ULFA, NDFB, and others.
�The Union Home Ministry also declared Meghalaya�s border areas adjoining Assam, and three districts in Arunachal Pradesh as �disturbed� under the AFSPA for two more months with effect from August 3.
In separate gazette notifications, the Home Ministry said entire Assam has been declared �disturbed� under the AFSPA with effect from August 3 till August 31.
The Ministry said the 20 km belt in Meghalaya bordering Assam will also continue to be a �disturbed area� under the AFSPA with effect from August 3 to September 30.
It has also declared as �disturbed� under the AFSPA three districts of Arunachal Pradesh � Tirap, Changlang and Longding � and areas falling within the jurisdiction of 14 police stations in nine other districts of the State with effect from August 4 to September 30.
The 14 police stations fall under the districts of Papumpare, West Siang, East Siang, Lower Dibang Valley, East Kameng, West Kameng, Namsai, Lohit, Lower Subansiri in Arunachal Pradesh.
A Home Ministry official said there were 75 incidents of violence in Assam in 2016 in which 33 people, including four security personnel, were killed and 14 others were abducted.
The violence was perpetrated in Assam by insurgent groups like ULFA, NDFB and others, the official said. AFSPA has been continuing in Assam since November 1990.
The official said continuing violence perpetrated by NSCN(I-M), NSCN(K), ULFA (I), NDFB, and others were key reasons for continuing with AFSPA in Arunachal Pradesh.
The AFSPA has been in force in the three Arunachal Pradesh districts of Tirap, Changlang and Longding since January 2016.
Meghalaya too has been witnessing violence by ULFA and NDFB militants in the recent past.
The Centre had on May 3 declared entire Assam as a �disturbed� area under the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act � the AFSPA � for three more months, citing various violent activities by insurgent groups ULFA, NDFB and others.
The Home Ministry had said entire Assam, besides bordering areas of Meghalaya, have been declared �disturbed� under the AFSPA for three months with effect from May 3.
Meanwhile, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh along with Minister of State for Home Affairs, Kiren Rijiju reviewed the Border Area Projects, here today.
The status of border roads, flood lights, Border Outposts (BOPs) and Integrated Check Posts (ICPs) along the international borders was reviewed in the meeting. Major impediments hampering the development of border infrastructure were also discussed.
The Home Minister directed that the on-going projects should be completed on priority and in a time-bound manner. He mentioned that technological solutions should be put in place where physical barriers are not possible. This will involve networking of equipment like high resolution cameras, radars, unattended ground sensors, optical fibres, infra-red sensors, aerostats and hand-held thermal imagers, etc.
