NESO demands withdrawal of AFSPA from entire NEThe North East Students’ Organisation (NESO), an apex body of eight student bodies, has demanded complete withdrawal of AFSPA and execution of Inner Line Permit (ILP) in the entire region for the safeguard and welfare of the indigenous people.While talking to the media, he said that the people of the northeastern states region have faced a “lot of atrocities” because of AFSPA, with the latest being the killing of 13 daily wager earners in a case of “mistaken identity” at Oting in Nagaland’s Mon district in December, 2021. The Union Home Ministry in two phases in 2022 and 2023 has reduced disturbed areas under AFSPA in Nagaland, Assam and Manipur but in certain areas the act remains effective.The AFSPA, which is sometimes termed by certain political parties and NGOs as “draconian law”, allows the Army and other central para-military forces to conduct raids and operations, arrest anyone anywhere without prior notice or arrest warrant. It was lifted from Tripura in 2015, in Meghalaya in 2018, and in Mizoram in the 1980s.The ILP had been in force in Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Mizoram. On December 11, 2019, it was promulgated in Manipur, to allow an Indian citizen into the ILP enforced areas for a stipulated period with the written permission of the state and competent authority. The main aim of the ILP system is to check settlement of other Indian nationals in these states to protect the native population. Protection is also extended to the indigenous people with regard to land, jobs and other facilities.