News Analysis India

Tag: Assam-Mizoram border tension

  • Assam-Mizoram border tensions ease as arrested Mizo IRB jawan granted bail, Mizoram stops construction

    By Express News Service

    GUWAHATI: An India Reserve Battalion (IRB) jawan from Mizoram, arrested by the Assam police in connection with a low-intensity blast on the interstate border, was granted bail by a local court in Assam’s Hailakandi district.

    The Mizoram police had sent the officer-in-charge of the state’s Bairabi police station to secure bail for the jawan.

    The Hailakandi police said the fresh border tensions, triggered by the explosion and Mizoram’s reconstruction of a bridge on the border area, eased after the jawan was granted bail and Mizoram took back the bridge construction materials on Saturday.

    “Mizoram has demonstrated a good gesture by taking back the construction materials. The situation has normalised. It is good for both sides. We can now focus on better things,” Hailakandi Superintendent of Police, Gaurav Upadhyay told this newspaper on Sunday.

    The Mizo IRB jawan was arrested from near the blast site soon after the incident two days ago.

    “When we had zeroed in on him, he couldn’t explain his presence. So, we arrested him and sent him to judicial custody,” Upadhyay said.

    The Assam police made it clear that there would be a reaction to every action on the border.

    Trouble started brewing on the interstate border since October 26 when Mizoram started reconstructing a bridge. Assam claims the land, where the bridge was being constructed, falls within its boundary. It had stopped the construction a few weeks ago.

    The two states, which share a 164.6-km-long border, have been for long embroiled in a bitter border row. It intensified since October last year. In July this year, the dispute had led to a gunfight between the police forces of the two states. Six Assam police personnel were killed and dozens others, including an SP, injured.

    In the aftermath of the incident, the Centre had to intervene, followed by its series of meetings with both sides. The two states had signed a joint declaration on August 5 to find a permanent solution to the issue. 

  • Tension palpable at Assam-Mizoram border, central forces on vigil

    By PTI
    SILCHAR/GUWAHATI: Tension was palpable at the Assam-Mizoram border on Sunday as the restrictions on the movement of vehicles, including trucks carrying essential supplies, entered the sixth day, officials said.

    The situation in and around Lailapur, which was rocked by deadly violence, along the interstate border remained calm with a large number of CRPF troops patrolling the National Highway-306, they said.

    An all-party delegation, led by Assam Chief Minister’s Political Secretary Jayanta Malla Baruah, visited the house of one slain Assam Police personnel and praised the valour of the force in handling the situation on Monday.

    Officials in Assam’s Barak Valley said the vehicular movement has totally been stopped even though there is no bar in travelling from one state to the other.

    Dozens of trucks with essential supplies, including COVID-19 materials, are waiting at the Kabuganj-Dholai stretch in Cachar district.

    “The organised blockade on roads leading to Mizoram were lifted and no group is now on the streets to stop trucks or other vehicles.

    But aggrieved civilians are now stopping vehicles.

    Also, trucks and other commercial vehicles are not taking any risk and they themselves are not trying to move,” an official said.

    Vehicles from Mizoram side are also not entering Assam and only official and security vehicles are plying on the road, he said.

    After the fierce gun battle between the two police forces on Monday on a disputed border forest tract, various groups in the Barak Valley enforced the blockade, drawing sharp protests from the neighbouring state.

    Seven people from Assam, including six police personnel, were killed and more than 50 people injured in the violence.

    Assam’s Barak Valley districts of Cachar, Karimganj and Hailakandi share a 164.6 km long border with Mizoram’s three districts of Aizawl, Kolasib and Mamit.

  • Assam ‘strengthens’ border outposts after alleged incursion by miscreants from Mizoram

    By Express News Service
    GUWAHATI: After a brief lull, tension has returned to haunt the locals of some villages along the Assam-Mizoram border.

    Two days ago, the miscreants, allegedly from Mizoram, had intruded into Hailakandi border district in southern Assam’s Barak Valley and burnt down two abandoned huts and constructed a house.

    In the aftermath of the incident, the Assam government is “strengthening” some border outposts (BoPs) to instil a sense of security in the minds of the locals.

    The two states have different perceptions of the border and they have been locked in a bitter border dispute for years.

    The Hailakandi district police said the latest incursion had taken place at two Assam villages.

    “They constructed a house at one place and burnt down two abandoned huts at the other,” Hailakandi Superintendent of Police, Ramandeep Kaur told this newspaper.

    “The matter has been already taken up at a higher level between both states. We have strengthened the BoPs by deploying additional forces,” she added.

    In two back to back incidents that occurred a few months ago, the miscreants, allegedly from Mizoram, had blown up two government schools in Cachar, a neighbouring district of Hailakandi.

    Assam also has border disputes with Meghalaya, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh.

    On May 27, Assam Congress MLA Rupjyoti Kurmi was fired upon by the miscreants and alleged land grabbers from Nagaland when he was visiting a village on the inter-state border along with a group of journalists.

    Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma had viewed the incident seriously. At his direction, Special Director General of Police, GP Singh had rushed to the spot to carry out an investigation.