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The Centre has sent two companies of the Rapid Action Force (RAF) to Arunachal Pradesh after protests against a proposed mega hydropower project in the Siang valley turned violent in Pasighat. About 250 personnel of the specialised anti-riot unit of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) were airlifted from Navi Mumbai on an Indian Air Force transport aircraft, officials said, and were to be deployed in Pasighat by Sunday, 25 October 2026. The deployment is the most visible sign yet of how a long-running dispute over a dam on the Siang river has moved from protests and petitions to a law-and-order crisis in three districts of the state.
The immediate trigger was a night of arson and clashes. What the deployment means, however, depends on a much older argument: whether a giant reservoir on the Siang is a strategic necessity for India, or a threat to the villages, land and river culture of the people who live along it.
The unrest followed a 12-hour bandh called across the Siang, Upper Siang and East Siang districts to oppose the proposed 11,200-megawatt Siang Upper Multipurpose Project (SUMP). According to officials and local reports, the bandh itself was largely peaceful. Trouble began in Pasighat, the headquarters of East Siang district, after the bandh ended on Friday evening, and continued into the early hours of Saturday morning, until around 3:30 am.
A mob set fire to an office of NHPC, the state-run hydropower company associated with the project, and to a police station in Pasighat. The residences of three political leaders were vandalised, including that of Arunachal Pradesh BJP president Kaling Moyong and two members of the legislative assembly. Several police vehicles were also damaged or set on fire. More than 40 police personnel were reported injured in stone-pelting and clashes, according to local law enforcement, and one protester was reported hospitalised after being struck by a tear gas shell.
The East Siang district administration responded by prohibiting public gatherings and processions in Pasighat, Mebo and Ruksin. Several CRPF units were already deployed in the affected areas, and Arunachal Pradesh has a permanent deployment of about two to three CRPF battalions. The two additional RAF companies are meant to reinforce that presence and prevent further escalation.
Chief Minister Pema Khandu described the incidents in Pasighat as regrettable and appealed for peace. He said the right to peaceful protest was an essential part of democracy, but added that demonstrations must remain within the bounds of the law and must not result in damage to property or disruption of public order. Officials said CRPF personnel had handled the protests since Friday and ensured the violence did not escalate further.
The RAF is the CRPF's specialised anti-riot unit, recognisable by its blue uniform and trained to deal with riots, large gatherings and serious public-order disturbances. The Union Ministry of Home Affairs directed the deployment on Saturday, 24 October, and the companies were airlifted from Navi Mumbai.
Deploying a central force in this way is a short-term public-order measure, not a decision on the project itself. It signals that the Centre considers the situation in the Siang belt serious enough to need reinforcement beyond the state police and the CRPF units already on the ground. It does not, by itself, settle any of the questions at the heart of the dispute: whether survey work should proceed, what safeguards should apply, or how affected communities should be consulted.
That distinction matters for what comes next. A force deployment can restore calm on the streets, but it cannot by itself rebuild trust between the administration and protesters. The state government has said it is working to stabilise the region, and officials have said the focus is on preventing further outbreaks of violence and addressing grievances through official channels. No timeline has been announced for lifting the restrictions in Pasighat and nearby areas.
The Siang Upper Multipurpose Project is a proposed 11,200-megawatt hydropower and water-storage project on the Siang river in Arunachal Pradesh. It would be spread across the Upper Siang, Siang and East Siang districts, and it is being pursued by NHPC.
The idea is not new. A project on the Siang was first proposed in the 1980s, was designated a national project in 2008, and has been revised several times since, from two separate stages to a single large storage project. It gained fresh momentum in September 2026, when reports say the Union Cabinet decided to conduct a pre-feasibility survey. The project is therefore still at the survey stage: it is not under construction, and no dam has been built.
The Siang is the river known as the Yarlung Tsangpo in Tibet. It flows for about 294 kilometres through Arunachal Pradesh before joining the Dibang and Lohit in Assam to form the Brahmaputra. That geography is central to everything that follows, because what happens on the Siang affects water, floods and livelihoods far downstream as well as in the valley itself.
For many residents of the Siang valley, particularly the indigenous Adi community, the river is not just a source of water or power. It is tied to identity, culture, ancestral land and livelihoods. Protesters fear that a large reservoir would submerge villages and farmland, displace families, damage the local environment and permanently sever their cultural and economic ties to the river.
A second concern is about process. Residents fear that a pre-feasibility survey is the first step towards a dam and displacement, even when the government says a survey is not a decision to build. That gap between official assurances and local experience is a large part of why the project has faced opposition for decades, and why a survey announcement can trigger protests even before any construction begins.
The vandalism of political leaders' homes and the torching of government offices during the Pasighat unrest went well beyond peaceful protest, and the Chief Minister condemned the damage. But the underlying opposition is broader than one night of violence, and it is rooted in questions that force alone cannot answer: who decides, who bears the cost, and what happens to people whose homes and land would be affected.
The government presents the project as a matter of water security, flood control and strategic interest, not only power generation. India has watched with concern as China builds large hydropower capacity upstream on the Yarlung Tsangpo in Tibet, including a giant project in Medog county. Indian officials fear that upstream control over the river's flow could affect water availability and flood risk downstream, and they argue that storage capacity on the Indian side would act as a buffer.
Chief Minister Pema Khandu has previously described protective action against China's dam as a national security necessity, and has presented India's project as a safety valve to control water. NHPC engineers involved in the planning have similarly said the project's main purpose is water security and flood mitigation, with power generation as an additional benefit.
If built at the proposed scale, the project would be among India's largest hydropower projects and could add a very large amount of clean electricity to the grid. But that potential has to be weighed against the human and environmental cost in the valley, and against the fact that the project remains at an early stage, with surveys, clearances and consultations still ahead.
In the immediate term, the test is whether calm returns to Pasighat and the surrounding districts, and whether the restrictions on gatherings can be lifted without fresh trouble. The RAF deployment is temporary reinforcement, and the longer question is whether the state and central governments open a credible channel of dialogue with the protesting communities.
Three things will be worth watching. First, whether the pre-feasibility survey proceeds, pauses or is modified in response to the protests. Second, whether the government publishes clear information about the project's footprint, including which villages and how much land could be affected, so that debate is based on facts rather than fear. Third, whether local leaders and community organisations are brought into a formal consultation process, rather than learning about decisions after they are taken.
The Siang dispute also has a wider significance. It is one of the clearest examples in India of a clash between national strategic planning and local consent. How it is handled will be watched by other river valleys facing similar projects, and by downstream states such as Assam, which have a direct stake in what happens on the Brahmaputra system.
The deployment of 250 RAF personnel to Arunachal Pradesh is a response to a specific night of violence in Pasighat, but it sits on top of a dispute that is more than forty years old. The facts of the weekend are stark: a peaceful bandh that ended in arson, injured police personnel, vandalised homes and a central force flown in from Navi Mumbai. The harder task now is not policing the valley but resolving the argument underneath it, between a government that sees a strategic dam and communities that see their river, land and future at stake. Until that argument is addressed through transparent information and genuine consultation, the Siang valley is likely to remain tense, whatever force is deployed there.
The Centre sent two companies of the Rapid Action Force, about 250 personnel, to Pasighat in Arunachal Pradesh after protests against the proposed 11,200-megawatt Siang Upper Multipurpose Project turned violent. The companies were airlifted from Navi Mumbai on an Indian Air Force transport aircraft on the direction of the Union Ministry of Home Affairs, and were to be deployed by Sunday, 25 October 2026.
A mob set fire to an NHPC office and a police station in Pasighat, vandalised the residences of three political leaders including state BJP president Kaling Moyong, and damaged several police vehicles. More than 40 police personnel were reported injured, and one protester was reported hospitalised after being struck by a tear gas shell.
The Siang Upper Multipurpose Project is a proposed 11,200-megawatt hydropower and water-storage project on the Siang river, spread across the Upper Siang, Siang and East Siang districts and pursued by NHPC. First proposed in the 1980s and designated a national project in 2008, it gained fresh momentum in September 2026 with a decision to conduct a pre-feasibility survey. It is not under construction.
Local communities, particularly the indigenous Adi community, fear a large reservoir would submerge villages and farmland, displace families and sever cultural and economic ties to the Siang river. The government argues the project is needed for water security and flood control, as a buffer against large upstream hydropower development by China on the Yarlung Tsangpo in Tibet, and says it would also add major clean power capacity.
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