Border, July 2: Simmering tension continues to prevail along the Mizoram-Assam border after two makeshift huts erected by Mizoram police at the disputed area were allegedly damaged by their Assam counterpart on Thursday, an official said.
Kolasib district deputy commissioner H. Lalthlangliana said that three makeshift camps were erected at the trouble-torn area by the state police following the mutual agreement on Wednesday, which allowed the deployment of forces by both states on either side of the borders.
He said that a district magistrate-level talks between the two states on Wednesday had mutually agreed to deploy their own forces on either side of the border with a promise not to make confrontation after a proposal of withdrawing forces by both states put forward by him (Lalthlangliana) was declined by his Assam’s Hailakandi counterpart.
“Two of the three makeshift camps erected by the Mizoram police were damaged by the Assam police during a confrontation between the two forces on Thursday,” he said. However, there were no casualties, he said. Lalthlangliana has vehemently blamed the Assam police for allegedly damaging the makeshifts camps in violation of the mutual agreement.
“Both of us (Mizoram and Assam) have mutually agreed to station our forces at the disputed area to maintain peace as Assam refused to accept the proposal to withdraw both forces. We also agreed not to confront each other. The destruction of the makeshift camps was a clear violation of the agreement,” he said. The Kolasib deputy commissioner said that he had complained the matter to his Hailakandi counterpart, who assured him to look into the matter.
Although Assam district officials insisted to discuss the border issue during the Wednesday meeting, Mizoram officials refused it citing a border dispute is significantly an affair between two states, which require the involvement of higher authorities from both sides and it could not be resolved at the district administration- level talks, Lalthangliana said. He said that he sticks to an immediate solution to defuse the prevailing tension during the talks on Thursday.
Mizoram’s three districts- Aizawl, Kolasib, and Mamit share about a 164.6 km long border with Assam’s Cachar, Karimganj and Hailakandi districts.
Also Read: Mizoram accuses Assam of encroachment as border dispute escalates
After two farmhouses on the interstate border were torched by unidentified persons on June 5, a fresh border standoff erupted on Tuesday when officials and police personnel of Assam led by Hailakandi deputy commissioner allegedly entered Mizoram’s territory and forcefully seized Aitlang hnar area about 5 km west of Vairengte, the nearest village in Mizoram’s Kolasib district which borders Assam’s Hailakandi district.
Officials of the two neighbouring states traded charges of encroachment in each other lands.
While Mizoram levelled aggression charge against Assam and accusing it of encroaching upon its land, the Assamese officials and legislators accused Mizoram of building structures and planting betel nut and banana saplings allegedly ten kilometres inside Hailakandi in Assam.
