The Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act has been renewed again, and a “temporary” measure has become permanent architecture.
On 25 September 2026, MHA extended the AFSPA in Manipur, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh for another six months starting 1 October. This is a standard notification and that’s the issue. A law designed to address a special problem is so often renewed that Delhi has ceased to see the rationale for it.
The 2026 notification applies to all of Manipur except for the jurisdiction of 13 police stations and nine full districts of Nagaland and Tirap, Changlang, Longding in Arunachal Pradesh. There are also 21 more areas in the police-stations in other five districts covered in Nagaland. The Act continues to be in effect until 31 March 2027 “unless withdrawn earlier” which has never been acted upon.
Shrinking map is the favourite talking point of the government. Union Home Minister Amit Shah has said that the Act was withdrawn from 70 per cent of the Northeast. The answer is somewhat correct. Tripura has withdrawn it in 2015 and exempted since 2004 for Imphal municipal area of Manipur. However, the pullouts seem more pendulum-like than trendy. In 2022, 15 areas of police stations have been reduced by the state of Manipur. The Act was reinstated in October 2024, but with 19 police stations exempted. The number of exclusions is 13 today. Two years is the window for a “peace dividend” to turn into a “peace burden” and it isn’t governance. It is improvisation.
The Northeast notification, however, does not tell the whole story, as Jammu and Kashmir has its own 1990 law.
If AFSPA is a bridge to peace, then you will be able to see the end point. It isn’t. The new extension comes on the heels of ethnic tension in Manipur, stalled peace talks in Nagaland and lingering militancy on the border of Arunachal and Assam. The Naga political negotiations, which have seen more than a few governments come and go, are still ongoing. Four Naga civilians were reportedly killed by perpetrators believed to be from Myanmar on 24 September, just before the extension. That was not stopped by a law granting soldiers a wide range of powers, and the killings are now being used as an excuse to retain the law.
This is the circular logic that lies behind the policy. If violence occurs, it’s justified by the Act; if the Act is present, then the conditions are unsafe. In the meantime, the civilian institutions which have been called upon to replace them are underfunded and subservient, including the police, the courts and political dialogue. Post conflict governance involves returning into the civil situation. AFSPA goes against this as the military remains the default mechanism of administration.
The worst provision in the Act is what soldiers can do after the shooting. Section 6 prevents employees from being prosecuted, sued or prosecuted under the Act without the prior approval of the Centre. This means that Delhi gets to decide whether the forces of any other state are to be taken up for trial.
This is what happened in the December 2021 Oting-Mon killings. Militants were on a killing spree in Mon district as army commandos waited and 13 civilians were killed in the failed ambush and aftermath. In May 2022, an SIT, formed by the Nagaland Police, had filed a chargesheet against 30 police officers and had sought sanction for prosecution. The Ministry of Defence did not, and the Supreme Court was not, so bound by Section 6 and the criminal proceedings were closed in September 2024. The Nagaland government said it had good evidence, even against a Major. The only thing that the Court could recommend as a remedy was action by the Army’s departments. Military discipline is not a public trial and there was no public reckoning for the victims’ families.
This is the most obvious example of the lack of accountability and trust that AFSPA is failing the very basic test of transition from conflict. A State that commits murder on its own citizens and then protects those who made the killing, cannot claim to have the legitimacy to make the citizens believe in its legitimacy.
It is no exaggeration to state that the local media in Nagaland has been unambiguous. One recent editorial termed the extension as “erosion of public trust” and pointed out that Mon episode has been the standing symbol of the Act. This is no longer isolated thinking, and it should be a worry to those who claim necessity of AFSPA for stability. It is not possible to have a counter-insurgency doctrine that consists of “winning hearts and minds” and a law that indicates that local concerns will not be heard in a court.
Cautiously, supporters will remind that more than eight out of 10 Northeasterners are peaceful and beyond the reach of the Act. That being the case, if it does then it is the most convincing argument against. But, negotiated settlements, development spending and political engagement brought peace to most of the region, rather than the blanket military immunity. AFSPA is generally where politics has stopped.
The Act calls for a review of the status of disturbed areas from time to time, but the public is never informed of the justifications for every six-month review. Second, remove or modify Section 6 to be time-limited, reasoned and judicially reviewable. Thirdly, link extensions to measurable outcomes, like incident information, civilian casualties, transferring of policing responsibilities, etc., and thus give the Act an exit condition. Fourth, resolve Naga and Manipur political issues as no security legislation can take the place of a settlement.
None of this is done at the expense of undermining the state in the event of real armed attack. First, it must be a state that is willing to take the same legal challenges as its citizens.
68 years after the passage of AFSPA, the issue of its justification in a particular district and at a particular time is no longer up for debate. That is why the Indian state has never worked out a plan on how to get out. Every extension is made out to be a security requirement. They represent a frank acknowledgment that government in these areas was never ever permitted to grow. Immunity brings no peace in the world. It is a postponement.
