New Delhi, Sept. 28: The gangrape of a deaf and mute woman on September 10 allegedly by some Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) personnel in Assam has again raised the urgency of repealing the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act.

This week human rights activists asked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who is a Rajya Sabha MP from Assam, to ensure the immediate arrest of the SSB personnel.

However, even two weeks after the crime, Assam police have not been able to identify the personnel responsible for the crime. They were allegedly posted at the Naharani and Saralpara outposts on the India-Bhutan border in Kokrajhar district, SSB sources said.

Assam additional director-general of police Khagen Sarma said no arrests had been made yet.

In a memorandum to the Prime Minister, the president of Bodo Women’s Justice Forum, Assam, Anjali Daimari, and several others said the incident reminded one of medieval barbarism. The victim was raped in front of her husband. “All this happens though India is the world’s largest democracy and an emerging economic power. This incident exposes the criminality and insensitivity of the armed forces, the political executive and the degeneration of India’s state apparatus,” the memorandum stated.

The incident also brings back black memories of the rape and murder of Th. Manorama Devi by Assam Rifles personnel in Manipur and the subsequent review of the army act. The Justice Jeevan Reddy Committee has submitted its report and the Prime Minister himself has said that “a more humane act” should replace the existing legislation. Union home minister P. Chidambaram recently said the law would be “revisited”.

In Manipur, Irom Chanu Sharmila has been on a hunger strike against the law for the past 11 years.

However, the government has been unusually tepid, being under pressure from the armed forces, especially the army. While the law has been in place and the armed forces continue to be deployed in Manipur, there are more than 50 insurgent groups in the state.

Daimari said such shameful incidents were repeated at regular intervals in Assam and other northeastern states. She said the outcry after women paraded naked in front of the army headquarters at Kangla Fort in Imphal after the Manorama incident shook the conscience of the nation. However, “the killing machines of the armed forces in the Northeast were neither ashamed nor shocked.”

SSB officials said the commander of the company on duty near Sonapur had been transferred. “The Assam police have not been able to identify the accused. We are for the dismissal of such personnel so that justice is done,” an official said.