Home Ministry to shift Army attack case to National Investigation Agency

NEW DELHI: The Home Ministry will be shifting the case of an attack on an Army convoy in Arunachal Pradesh to the National Investigation Agency (NIA), officials in the Ministry said.

Three Army personnel of the 4 Rajput Regiment were killed and four injured when suspected NSCN insurgents had ambushed an Army vehicle in Arunachal Pradesh's Tirap district on April 2. The spot is close to the Arunachal-Nagaland border. "This is a serious case and will be shifted to NIA soon. There was heavy firing from the other side," a home ministry official said.
The army convoy was on its way to Longding district in Arunachal Pradesh from an army base in Assam's Tinsukia distric when it came under attack in Toip area in Tirap district.

Since the 1990s, three districts of Assam, Tirap, Changlang and Longding have been entirely covered by AFSPA while nine other districts have a 20-kilometer corridor covered under AFSPA which borders Assam. In a notification issued on March 27, the Home Ministry extended AFSPA to these nine districts in their entirety. This prompted angry protests by the state Chief Minister, Nabam Tuki, who said AFSPA was being extended to his "peaceful state without any consultations." The Union Home Ministry is now willing to raise the AFSPA belt in these nine districts from 20 to 30 kilometers only.