Innocence

Can it be possible for the army officer to rape someone for the sake of their duty ? Strange isn't it ? Let us take the recent case in Karbi Anglong. On 6 April an army regiment entered a village and molested and injured many women. Around 8 Jawan carried off a 15 year old girl into the forest. Although protest have been going on in Karbi Anglong ever since the rape took place but the police say that they cannot make any arrest because of AFSPA. AFSPA ( Armed Force Special Power Act) is the act of Parliament of India that grants special powers to the Indian Armed Forces. AFSPA was introduced by Parliament on 11 September 1958. It was first implemented in the northeast and then in Punjab. In September 1990 Parliament passed the armed force (J&K) special power act. According to the AFSPA in an area that is proclaimed as ' disturbed' , an officer of the armed forces has powers to. •After giving such due warning , fire upon or use other kinds of forces even if it causes death. •Destroy any arms dump, hide- outs,prepared or fortified position or shelter from which armed attacks are made by the armed volunteers. •To arrest without a warrant anyone who has committed cognizable offences. •To enter and search any premise in order to make such arrests or to recover any person wrongfully restrained. •To stop & search vehicle or vessel reasonably suspected to be carrying such person or weapons. •Any person arrested and taken into custody under this act shall be made present over to the officer in charge of the nearest police station. Army officer have legal immunity for their actions. •There can be no prosecution or any other legal proceeding against anyone acting under the law. The act in the Constitution of India empower central government to declare a state of emergency due to the following reasons: •Failure of the administration and the local police to tackle local issues. Return of (central) security forces leads to return of disturbance of the peace on that area. •The scale of unrest of stability in the state is too large for local forces to handle. Rajnath singh has said that the AFSPA will be removed from J&K when the situation is conductive. While the Public Democratic Party (PDP political party of J&K) has promised to complete removal of AFSPA in its election manifesto but the BJP is not likely to agree to this demand easily. From 1990 to 2011, the J&K Government reportedly recorded a total of over 43,000 people killed. Of those killed 21,322 were said to be militants, 13,226 civilians and 5,369 security force persons killed by army people & 3642 civilians killed by security forces. Armed group have committed thousands of abuses. The report also notes that in December 2013, both the chief of army staff and head of the Army's Northern Command declared that there was zero tolerance for Human Rights by Army persons. Despite that 96% of all complaints brought against the army in J&K has been dismissed as 'baseless' says the report. Many human rights organization such as Amnesty International and Human Rights watch have condemned human rights abuses in Kashmir by police. Amnesty international report states that in the early 1990's more than 800 cases of torture and deaths occurred in the custody of the security forces, apart from 100 of extra judicial executions and forced disappearances between 1989 to 2013. The AFSPA grants the military wide powers of arrest, the Right to shoot or kill. Indian officials claim that troops needs such power because the army is only deployed when national security is at serious risk from armed officials.