CHANGLANG, April 3 (MExN): The Tirap, Changlang & Longding People's Forum (TCLPF) has condemned the firing incident allegedly involving 12 Para Special Forces of Indian Army on April 1 in Tirap district of Arunachal Pradesh.
As per a press release from TCLPF, the 12 Para Special Forces of Indian Army “again opened fire without any warning” over 4 civilians of Chasa village and Khowathong village when they were on way back from fishing on Friday. Two of them Nokphua Wangpan and Shri Ramwang Wangsu were severely injured in the firing, it said.
The TCLPF and people of Tirap Changlang and Longding (TCL) district strongly condemned the unprecedented incident with the highest terms possible and such blatant misuse of the Armed Forces Special Power Act (AFSPA) 1958, by the Indian Army towards civilian must be ‘stopped immediately,’ stated the release issued by Forum’s President N Changmi.
Such unlawful cannot be tolerated times and again, it added.
The in-charge commander of 12 Para Special Forces already confessed their mistake so the incident should be investigated in the highest level at an earliest possible way to unearth the truth and deliver justice to the injured persons, the TCLPF further stated.
The Forum further appealed to the Government of India to repeal the ‘inhumane’ AFSPA from the TCL district of Arunachal Pradesh.
It further urged the GoI and and Arunachal Pradesh state government to immediately initiate enquiry into what it termed as repeated cross misuse of AFSPA in the TCL region.
The TCLPF also extend its prayer and speedy recovery of injured persons.
As per a PTI news agency report, the two civilians were "mistakenly" shot at by the Army in Tirap district of Arunachal Pradesh, quoting Army sources on Saturday.
The firing incident comes months after 14 people were shot dead by the Army in a botched anti-militancy operation in neighbouring Nagaland's Mon district, around 150 km from Tirap. The previous incident, which happened on December 4-5, had triggered widespread protests, demanding the withdrawal of AFSPA, it added.
The two wounded villagers were sent to the Assam Medical College and Hospital (AMCH) in Dibrugarh by the Army for treatment and both are currently out of danger, the report added.
