Armed Forces Act (AFSPA), 1958 is an act of the Parliament of India that grants special powers to the Indian Armed Forces to maintain public order in "disturbed areas". According to the Disturbed Areas Act, 1976 once declared 'disturbed', the area has to maintain status quo for a minimum of 3 months. One such act passed on 11 September 1958 was applicable to the Naga Hills, then part of Assam. In the following decades it spread, one by one, to the other Seven Sister States in India's northeast. Another one passed in 1983 and applicable to Punjab and Chandigarh was withdrawn in 1997, roughly 14 years after it came to force. An act passed in 1990 was applied to Jammu and Kashmir and has been in force since.
The Insurgency in Northeast India involves multiple separatist militant groups operating in some of India's northeastern states, which are connected to the rest of India by the Siliguri Corridor, a strip of land as narrow as 14.29 miles (23.00 km) wide.
Terrorism in India, according to the Home Ministry, poses a significant threat to the people of India. Compared to other countries, India faces a wide range of terror groups. Terrorism found in India includes Islamist terrorism, ultranationalist terrorism, and left-wing terrorism. India is one of the countries most impacted by terrorism.
The United National Liberation Front (UNLF), also known as the United National Liberation Front of Manipur, is a separatist insurgent group active in the state of Manipur in Northeast India which aims at establishing a sovereign and socialist Manipur.
The People's Revolutionary Party of Kangleipak (PREPAK) is an armed insurgent group in Manipur demanding a separate and independent homeland. PREPAK was formed under the leadership of R. K. Tulachandra in 1977.
From 1984 to 1995, the state of Punjab in northern India was engaged in a power struggle between the militant secessionist Khalistan movement and Indian security forces. The Indian government responded to the escalating Punjab insurgency by launching Operation Blue Star in 1984, storming the Harmandir Sahib, or Golden Temple complex in Amritsar—the center of Sikh religious and spiritual life, where some militant groups had retreated. The Operation was controversial and resulted in death of hundreds of civilians, militants and soldiers. After Sikh bodyguards assassinated Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, a state wide massacre ensued.
Irom Chanu Sharmila, also known as the "Iron Lady of Manipur" or "Mengoubi" is an Indian civil rights activist, political activist, and poet from the Indian state of Manipur, which is located on the north-eastern side of India. In November 2000, she began a hunger strike for abolishing the Armed Forces Act, 1958. After 16 years, she ended her fast in 2016, after being nasally force-fed for over 500 weeks in custody. Therefore, she has been viewed as the world's longest hunger striker. Amnesty International has declared her as a prisoner of conscience.
The People's Liberation Army of Manipur, often shortened to the People's Liberation Army, is a militant group fighting for the creation of an independent and socialist Manipur, a state in northeastern India.
Assam separatist movements refers to a series of multiple insurgent and separatist movements that had been operated in the Northeast Indian state of Assam. The conflict started in the 1970s following tension between the native indigenous Assamese people and the Indian government over alleged neglect, political, social, cultural, economic issues and increased levels of illegal immigration from Bangladesh. The conflict has resulted in the deaths of 12,000 United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA) militants and 18,000 others.
Secession in India typically refers to state secession, which is the withdrawal of one or more states from the Republic of India. Whereas, some have wanted a separate state, union territory or an autonomous administrative division within India. Many separatist movements exist with thousands of members, however, some have low local support and high voter participation in democratic elections. However, at the same time, demanding separate statehood within under the administration of Indian union from an existing state can lead to criminal charges under secession law in India. India is described as an ‘Union of States’ in Article 1 of the Indian constitution I.e "Indestructible nation of destructible states" by its father of constitution Dr. Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar where a state or Union territory of India cannot secede from India by any means and the Central Government has more powers than the respective state governments and can forcefully change the names and boundaries of the states without their permission at any time when needed for self interest and for the maintenance of integrity.
Human rights abuses in Jammu and Kashmir range from mass killings, enforced disappearances, torture, rape and sexual abuse to political repression and suppression of freedom of speech. The Indian Army, Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), and Border Security Personnel (BSF) have been accused of committing severe human rights abuses against Kashmiri civilians. According to Seema Kazi, militant groups have also been held responsible for similar crimes, but the vast majority of abuses have been perpetrated by the armed forces of the Indian government.
Human rights abuses in Assam have been compared to the situation of human rights abuses in other insurgency-affected areas of northeast India.
Human rights issues in northeast India have been widely reported in the press and by human rights activists. Northeast India refers to the north-easternmost region of India consisting of the states of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim, and Tripura, as well as parts of northern West Bengal.
Child soldiers in India is a common occurrence among non-state forces such as insurgent organizations and up to seventeen militant factions use child soldiers in the Kashmir region. According to a report from the Conflict Study Center, child soldiers are used in Assam, Manipur, Nagaland, Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Jammu and Kashmir; and that children were used by both state backed and anti-state insurgent groups. Use of children below the age of 18 in active conflict is a violation of the Indian Penal Code, the Geneva convention and the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Kanglei Yawol Kanna Lup is a Meitei insurgent group that operates in the state of Manipur in India. It was formed in January 1994 by a faction of the United National Liberation Front (UNLF) led by Namoijam Oken in conjunction with splinter groups of Kangleipak Communist Party (KCP) and People's Revolutionary Party of Kangleipak (PREPAK). It is a secessionist organisation and banned by the Government of India. The group displays a strong ethnonationalist and nativist rhetoric in their announcements.
The Insurgency in Manipur is an ongoing armed conflict between India and a number of separatist rebel groups, taking place in the state of Manipur. The Insurgency in Manipur is part of the wider Insurgency in Northeast India; it displays elements of a national liberation war as well as an ethnic conflict.
Manipur: The Land of Tears is a 2014 television documentary film produced by News7 Tamil Channel, directed by Maga.Tamizh Prabhagaran young Indian journalist and filmmaker.
Operation Golden Bird was an Indian-Myanmar military operation conducted by the Indian Army in April–May 1995.
Meira Paibi is a women's social movement in the Indian state of Manipur. Referred to as the "guardians of civil society", Meira Paibi dates to 1977 in present Kakching district. It derives its name from the flaming torches which the women carry while marching through city streets, often at night. They do so both as a patrol, and in protest, seeking redress against human rights violations committed by paramilitary and armed forces units against the innocent. Contextualized, Meira Paibi was founded at a time when the people of Manipur were fighting for self-determination, political autonomy, and independence.
Throughout the long-running separatist insurgencies in Northeast India, dozens of India-based insurgent groups have been involved in the neighboring conflict in Myanmar, both sheltering in Myanmar from the counterinsurgent Assam Rifles and participating in the conflict itself. Outside of several Indian-led operations, including Operation Golden Bird in 1995, Operation Hot Pursuit in 2015, or Operation Sunrise I and II in 2019, areas in which these insurgent groups are active have scarcely experienced fighting. Several sources claim that the majority of IEAOs are allied, or have some level of understanding, with the ruling military junta of Myanmar, who allows them to maintain bases inside mountainous areas of northern Myanmar, typically in return for the IEAOs attacking anti-junta resistance groups.
