The Centre on Monday extended the “disturbed area” classification for three districts in Arunachal Pradesh under the Armed Forces Special Powers Act. The Ministry of Home Affairs said in a notification that the districts of Tirap, Changlang and Longding and the area falling within the jurisdiction of four police stations on the Arunachal Pradesh-Assam border has been declared as a “disturbed area”.

The areas falling within the jurisdiction of Namsai and Mahadevpur police stations in Namsai district, Roing police station in Lower Dibang Valley district and Sunpura police station in Lohit district have been declared as disturbed areas.

The Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act gives the military sweeping powers to search and arrest, and to open fire if they deem it necessary for “the maintenance of public order”, and to do so with a degree of immunity from prosecution.

The gazette notification said that these regions were earlier declared as disturbed areas on October 1, 2018. In the October notification, regions under eight police stations were declared as disturbed. Monday’s notification said the Centre took the decision to extend the disturbed area tag after a review of the law and order situation.

The notification will be in force till September 30, the Ministry of Home Affairs said.