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Dimapur, Oct. 6 (EMN): The Ministry of Home Affairs reported that a decline in insurgency incidents and casualties among the civilians and security forces was witnessed in 2021 (up to August 31, 2021) compared to the previous years.
2021 saw a decline in reported cases with 135 incidents compared to 163 incidents in 2020, while the number of extremists killed till August in 2021 increased to 29 from 21 in the previous year.
The number of extremists arrested during the period was 448, security forces killed was three, civilians killed was 13, extremist surrendered was 1286, arms surrendered was 422 (verification underway), arms recovered was 271, and persons kidnapped was 55.
Till August 2021, as many as 24 insurgency incidents were reported in Nagaland with no extremists killed while the number of extremists arrested was 179, according to the report.
It added that no security forces and civilians were killed, while extremists surrendered was seven, arms surrendered was nil, arms recovered was 68, and persons kidnapped was 29.
The report maintained that because of the improvement in the security situation, the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958 had been removed completely from the north-eastern states of Meghalaya and Tripura.
Its application had been reduced in Arunachal Pradesh while the ceasefire agreement with NSCN (Khango) of Nagaland has been extended till April 17 2022; and NSCN (K) Niki group signed a similar agreement on Sep. 8 2021 up to Sep. 7, 2022.
The Ministry of Home Affairs maintained that it has been implementing a scheme for surrender-cum-rehabilitation of militants in the Northeast from April 1998 “to wean away the misguided youth and hardcore militants who stray into the fold of militancy and later find themselves trapped into that net. The Scheme also seeks to ensure that the militants, who have surrendered, do not find it attractive to join militancy again”. The scheme was revised in 2018 for six north-eastern states except Sikkim and Mizoram.
Some of the benefits under this policy, as per the Ministry, are an immediate grant of INR 4 lakh to each surrendered militant, which is to be kept in the name of the surrendered as fixed deposit in a bank for a period of three years. This money can be utilised as collateral security/margin money against loan to be availed by the surrendered from the bank for self-employment. The other benefit is payment of stipend of INR 6000 per month to each surrendered for a period of three years; vocational training to the surrendered for self-employment; and incentives for weapons/ammunition surrendered by the militants.