• NET Web Desk

The National People’s Party (NPP) leader from Tura constituency of Meghalaya – Agatha Sangma sought the inclusion of Khasi & Garo languages into Eighth Schedule of the Constitution of India and reiterated demand to repeal the ‘draconian’ Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), 1958 from Northeast India.

This issues were raised by Sangma on Friday in Lok Sabha while participating in the discussion on Motion of Thanks to the President’s Address.

With demands from time to time been raised for the inclusion of Khasi language into the Eighth Schedule of Constitution of India, and several attempts been made from different fronts to attain the same but somehow the demands remained inconclusive. On 2021, the Meghalaya Legislative Assembly passed a resolution for inclusion of Khasi and Garo languages into the Eighth Schedule of the  Constitution of India.

Meanwhile, the leader has also referred the civilian killings by security forces in a botched counter-insurgency operation last year in Nagaland as an “unfortunate incident”, and demanded its repeal.

Its worthy to note that the demand for AFSPA repeal renewed back after the tragic incident of December 4, when innocent civilians identified as coal-miners were gunned down by security forces in Mon district of Nagaland. This unfortunate incident is basically the repercussion of botched army operation, which mistook the civilians as insurgents from the Yung Aung faction of the banned militant outfit – National Socialist Council of Nagaland-Khaplang (NSCN-K).