In a landmark judgment, the Summary General Court Martial of the Army held at Dinjan (Assam) on October 15, sentenced a retired Maj. General (A.K. Lal), two Colonels (Thomas Mathew and R.S. Sibiren), two Captains (Dilip Singh and Jagdeo Singh), two naiks (Albindar Singh and Shivendar Singh) to life imprisonment for the 1994 fake encounter killings in Assam. The Army had taken cognisance of the CBI chargesheet against the accused who were found guilty of subjecting the nine picked up All Assam Students Union (AASU) members to a horrific torture. According to reports, the torture of the AASU members were so horrific that the accused murdered them in cold blood to hide the heinous act instead of handing them over to authorities. The nine AASU members- Prabin Sonowal, Pradip Dutta, Debajit Biswas, Akhil Sonowal and Bhaben Moran- were killed in the fake encounter, and most unfortunately, Assam Police had later claimed that those killed were ULFA militants. They were picked up by the Army from various parts of Assam between February 17 and 19, 1994, after the killing of a tea estate manager. What followed was the kind of treatment and fate that had befallen thousands of Nagas from the 50s till the 80s but the whole nation was kept in the dark by the Indian media. The irony of the entire brutally inhuman fake encounter killings is about the judgment by the army’s own general court martial. It is an irony because the court martial of the accused should not have happened under Armed Force (Special Powers) Act 1958 which insulates or shields guilty personnel of any wrongdoing even leading to death while operating under the Act. The other irony of the October 15 court martial judgment was that the entire case was initiated through the courageous efforts of former Assam minister and Bharatiya Janata Party leader Jagadish Bhuyan who had filed a habeas corpus petition in the Gauhati high court on February 22, 1994. It may be noted that the BJP is not in favour of diluting or revoking AFSPA and to Bhuyan’s crusade does not conform to this stand. After the habeas corpus, what followed was a CBI probe and consequent charge sheet against the accused. From thereon, the army took over by instituting its own general court martial against the accused. Most interestingly, the October 15 judgment came at a time when more than 700 army personnel had petitioned the Supreme Court asking for stay against all court-monitored investigations into fake encounters by the armed forces. The first prayer of the petitioners was to protect the “bonafide” action of soldiers under the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, “so that no soldier is harassed by initiation of criminal proceedings”. A colonial mindset within some politicians as well as army, felt that the AFSPA was necessary to protect the internal security and integration of India. On that plea thousand of Nagas under erstwhile Naga Hill and Tuensang Frontier Division were subjected to inhuman atrocities and many still carry the scars on their bodies and minds. Some of the atrocities committed by the army and armed police forces deployed to the Naga hills were unparalleled and unmentionable. It is justice that the accused have been given life sentence for taking away the lives of nine innocent citizens whose families are left psychologically devastated. However, this does not take away the need to remove the draconian cover that insulates uniformed personnel from being taken to civil courts.