Anti-Repression Day on July 15
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, July 12 2025: As in previous years, Anti-Repression Day will be observed on July 15 at Lamyanba Shanglen, Palace Compound to commemorate the historic nude protest staged by 12 mothers near the western gate of Kangla on July 15, 2004 against Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) and the alleged atrocities committed by security forces under the impunity guaranteed by AFSPA.

A press release issued by the Observation Committee Anti-Repression Day 2025 stated that the people of Manipur still remember the symbolic protest staged by the 12 mothers against the killing ofThangjam Manorama, a resident of Bamon Kampu, after she was forcibly taken from her home, holding banners with inscriptions like "Indian Army Rape Us" and "Take Our Flesh".

It stated that AFSPA was removed from the Greater Imphal areas and the Assam Rifles was relocated from Kangla in response to the powerful protest staged by the 12 mothers.

The people of Manipur observe Anti-Repression Day on July 15 every year to expose the alleged excesses of the Central forces and the inhumane activities carried out under AFSPA, it said, adding that the 12 mothers who showed defiance and protested against AFSPA must be honoured in the highest manner.

Claiming that Central forces began violating human rights both openly and discreetly following the imposition of AFSPA in Manipur in 1980, the committee alleged that numerous military operations, including Operation Bluebird, Operation Loktak, Operation Somtal 1 & 2, Operation Dragnet, and Operation Summer Storm, were carried out without the involvement of the civil administration to suppress insurgency.

Forced disappearances, third-degree torture in custody, outraging the modesty of women, and killing and torturing innocent people became commonplace after the imposition of AFSPA, it claimed and adding that justice, however, hasn't been delivered in any of the numerous cases of human right violation.

AFSPA grants sweeping powers to security personnel, allowing them to arrest people without a warrant, search homes, and even authorizes killings by soldiers below the rank of non-commissioned officers, with the judiciary barred from interfering in atrocities committed by Central forces without the consent of the Government of India, it added.

Claiming that the Government of India relies on AFSPA, a law inherited from the British, to suppress the people of the North East States and Kashmir, the committee added that the North East States have also been turned into a frontier zone due to the China factor.

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