·         Imagine army persons enter your house and take away your daughter.  And they are not seen after that. Later you hear that your daughter was found dead riddled with bullets in the vagina and with evidence of rape. No army person is indicted or brought to trial. o   This happened to Thangjam Manorama who was picked up by the Indian Paramilitary unit, 17th Assam Rifles, on July 10, 2004. Her body was found the next day in the fields as described above. Five days after the incident, 30 middle aged women of Manipur walked naked in Imphal upto the Assam Rifles Headquarters shouting "Indian Army Rape Us too. We are all Manorama's mothers" §  Under AFSPA, the army personnel cannot be tried or brought to trial. So far, nothing has happened except in Dec 2014 the Supreme Court ordered the Govt to pay Rs 10 lakhs compensation to Manorama's family. §  Under AFSPA, the army personnel can enter any house, search and carry away persons without any accountability. And they cannot be tried or brought to trial. ·         Visualise yourself standing at a bus stop waiting along with ten others one of whom is a 62 year old lady and one an 18 year old boy who won a National Child Bravery Award when he was 6 years old. Due to indiscriminate firing by the army personnel the ten who were standing with you are killed. o   This happened in a place called Malom near Imphal on 2 Nov 2000 when the 8th Assam Rifles opened fire on civilians. ·         Irom Sharmila began her hunger fast on 4 Nov 2000 demanding action against the army personnel and repeal of AFSPA. Irom Sharmila gets released and re-arrested every year under section 309 of the IPC for attempt to suicide. ·         But Irom Sharmila does not want to die. She wants to marry the person she loves. She wants to live and enjoy life as you and me do. Only she is using the only available power with her to democratically raise the consciousness of the people to repeal an act that allows indiscriminate rape and killing and which has not served the purpose of curbing militancy. ·         Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) is an Act of our Parliament that owes its origin to the Armed Forces Special Powers Ordinance which was passed by the British in 1942 to suppress the Quit India movement. After that in 1947 our central govt passed the same ordinances for Assam, Bengal, East Bengal, United Provinces Disturbed Areas following the partition.After that the Central Govt passed the Armed Forces (Assam and Manipur) Special Powers Ordinance in May 1958 and followed it by the Armed Forces (Assam and Manipur) Special Powers Act in Sept 1958. Then it was extended to the five states of the North East - Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Tripura and to the Union Territories Arunachal Pradesh and Mizoram - and so the act became the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), 1958. ·         The Jeevan Reddy Committee appointed by the central government in late 2004 submitted its report in May-June 2005 and recommended the repeal of the draconian law. It suggested the replacement of certain provisions of the Unlawful Prevention of Atrocities Act (UPA) (1967) Act with certain amendments. The UPA Act itself has been thereafter been amended in 2008 and 2012. o   The Committee said of AFSPA "the Act, for whatever reason, has become a symbol of oppression, an object of hate and an instrument of discrimination and high-handedness". AFSPA was imposed on J&K in 1990.·         AFSPA was enacted in Punjab and Chandigarh in 1983 and withdrawn in 1997, after 14 years. ·         In March 2015, the Left Front Government of Tripura, after a thorough review of the law and order situation of the State came to the conclusion that peace has been restored and that the situation is under control and has repealed the act and its writ in the state.