Hailakandi: Tension on the inter-state border escalated once again after an incident of firing late on Monday night, three weeks after violent clashes between the police forces of Assam and Mizoram. While Mizoram alleged that Assam Police personnel opened fire on its civilians in which one person was injured, the neighboring state claimed that the policemen only retaliated after miscreants opened fire on them from the other side of the border. Of. On July 26, a violent clash broke out between the police forces of the two northeastern states in which seven people, including six Assam policemen, were killed and over 50 others were injured. The process of resolving the matter is on.
The incident took place at 2 pm on Monday in the disputed Aitlang area bordering Assam’s Hailakandi district, when three residents of Vairengte Nagar, a resident of Bilaipur in Assam, took meat from a friend, H. Lalthalangliana, Deputy Commissioner of Mizoram’s Kolasib district, told PTI. Went there to pick up the one who had invited them. He claimed that one person was injured in firing by Assam Police personnel deployed along the inter-state border.
Hailakandi Superintendent of Police Gaurav Upadhyay said there was a firing but he refused to share details. “There is no report of any casualty on either side,” he said.
However, a senior district official told PTI that miscreants from Mizoram opened fire in the dark from the top of the Darsing Hills when the laborers were constructing a road leading to the border from Bilaipur under the MGNREGA scheme.
“Assam Police personnel also opened fire in retaliation to the firing by Mizoram,” the official said. Upadhyay said that he along with Hailakandi Deputy Commissioner Rohan Jha reached the spot soon after the exchange of fire at around 2 pm. “There has been the heavy deployment of security forces in the area,” he said.
In a meeting convened by the Home Ministry in New Delhi, two days after the July 26 standoff, it was decided that a neutral central force would be deployed along the troubled Assam-Mizoram border. The meeting chaired by Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla was attended by the Chief Secretaries and DGPs of both the states. However, the state police forces continue to guard the border. The representatives of Assam and Mizoram held talks in Aizawl on 5 August and had agreed to amicably resolve the inter-state border dispute.
A joint statement issued after the meeting said, “Representatives of the Governments of Assam and Mizoram work to promote, preserve and maintain peace and harmony among the people residing in Assam and Mizoram, especially in the border areas. Agree to take all necessary measures for
The Assam government also canceled an advisory issued earlier against travel to Mizoram on the same day. The Barak Valley districts of Assam’s Cachar, Karimganj, and Hailakandi share a 164-km-long border with the three districts of Mizoram, Aizawl, Kolasib, and Mamit. Mizoram was a district of Assam before being carved out as a separate union territory in 1971 after years of insurgency.
After that, the issue of boundary arose as to where the boundary should be as there were different perceptions about it. While Mizoram wants it to be along the Inner Line notified in 1875, which Mizo tribals believe is part of their historical homeland, Assam wants it to be demarcated according to the district’s demarcation done much later.
