Assam government has declared the entire State of Assam as 'disturbed area' up to 6 months

Assam government has declared the entire State of Assam as “Disturbed Area” up to 6 (six) months with effect from February 28, 2022.

In an official communique state government stated,” After reviewing the law and order situation in Assam in the past six months the state government has declared the entire State of Assam as “Disturbed Area” up to 6 (six) months with effect from 28/02/2022, unless withdrawn earlier. The declaration has been made as per powers conferred under Section 3 of the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958.”

Assam Chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma in January this year had said that debate on Armed Forces Special Powers Act, 1958 (AFSPA) will be over and there will be some good news by March this year.


He said, " You see AFSPA is technically linked to the army and the army is not operating in a large part of Assam. Army is operating in five or six districts. So in large parts of Assam there is no Afspa. "

He said the last time AFSPA extended was on August 28 and next review will be on February 28 this year. " Union home minister Amit Shah has given us some guidelines and we are working accordingly. The whole debate on AFSPA act will end soon. "

He added that there will be some rationalization of AFSPA before March however complete withdrawal is not possible. There cannot be a midway review of AFSPA and there will be some positives on it by March this year.

On January 1, the chief minister said,” In 2022 we will see positive movement on AFSPA, how and when I do not know however I am an optimistic man. We should have a lasting peace in Assam.”

On August 28 ‘disturbed area’ was extended for another six months, although several erstwhile outlawed outfits operating in the Northeast’s most populous province have lately sought to mainstream themselves.

In Manipur, AFSPA is in force, except in seven assembly constituencies of Imphal. In Arunachal Pradesh, areas under AFSPA have been halved to those under eight police stations, besides Tirap, Changlang and Longding districts.




While AFSPA has been lifted from Tripura and Meghalaya, in Nagaland there is widespread demand to withdraw the act from the state.

Following December 4 last year Oting incident in Nagaland where 14 civilians and one security personnel died in a firing incident in Nagaland's Mon district following which there was protest and demand from different quarters to withdrawAFSPA.