The Naga Students’ Federation (NSF) on Friday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to immediately repeal the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958, and sought justice for the 14 civilians killed in a botched counter-insurgency operation by the army in Nagaland’s Mon district early this month.

The influential student organisation, which had organised a massive protest rally in Kohima against the Mon killings from 11am, has placed three core demands before the Prime Minister, seeking his prompt intervention:

⚫ The Centre should set up a court-monitored committee headed by a retired Supreme Court/high court judge for a fair, impartial and prompt probe into the Oting massacre. The NSF also sought justice in all pending cases of excesses committed by the armed forces.

⚫ Immediate repeal of the “draconian” AFSPA from “our Naga homeland”. The federation sees no rationale behind the entire Naga homeland within India being tagged as “disturbed areas” and the repressive AFSPA being thrust upon its people when the Indo-Naga political dialogue is at a very crucial stage.

⚫ The federation also sought an expedite solution to the Indo-Naga political issue. The NSF said the sacrifices of many Nagas, whether dead or alive, was not a struggle for Naga identity alone. “It is also a struggle for self-determination, a struggle against the imposition of alien culture and values upon us,” it said.

At the NSF-organised peoples’ rally, representatives of several leading civil society and student organisations, including the North East Students’ Organisation (NESO), Global Naga Forum, Eastern Naga Students’ Federation and Forum for Naga Reconciliation took part.

The NSF said the prevailing law-and-order situation in the Naga-inhabited areas did not merit the AFSPA, which had only been used as a “tool for psychological warfare” against the Naga people.

“It is only because of the AFSPA that the Indian armed forces continue to operate with impunity while forgetting all values and virtues that inhibit a sober soul,” the organisation said in its memorandum signed by NSF president Kegwayhun Tep and general secretary Siipuni Ng Philo.

The AFSPA gives sweeping powers to the armed forces to search, arrest and shoot to maintain order in areas declared as disturbed under the act, something most believe has done more harm than good in the Northeast.

In the memorandum, the NSF cited 10 incidents of “excesses” committed by the armed forces in Nagaland since 1960.

The Federation also reiterated that the special investigation team (SIT) set up by the Nagaland government would “not do justice to the wilful acts” of the Indian armed forces under the “protection of the repressive AFSPA”.

“More so, the GoI must admit to the utter failure of its intelligence agencies and publicly apologise to the Naga people for furthering their subjugation of the Nagas through its policy of militarisation,” the NSF said.

The ongoing peace process to end the decades-old Naga insurgency started in 1997 and a Framework Agreement was signed in 2015. Peace talks are said to be at an advanced stage.

The NSF made it clear that “economic packages or monetary assistance cannot purchase the rights of the Naga people”. The envisaged solution must be mutually agreed upon on the negotiating table and not an imposed one, it said.

The Konyak Union, the apex social organisation of Mon district, had Thursday wrote to President Ram Nath Kovind with a four-point charter of demands, which also include justice for the Mon victims and immediate removal of AFSPA from the entire Northeast.

Sources said protests were only going to escalate.