An Assam-Mizoram border post
By Nava Thakuria*
Guwahati: The Assam-Mizoram border conflicts where six Assam police personnel had to sacrifice their lives on 26 July 2021 evening merits a clarification from the Mizoram Government in Aizawl how their police forces fired upon the group of Assam police personnel without intimations even though both are government recognised armed forces under the same set of rules.
It may be mentioned that the inter-State flare up resulted in the killing of Assam police personnel namely Swapan Roy (SI), Liton Suklabaidya, MH Barbhuiya, N Hussain, S Barbhuiya and Shyamprasad Dusat where over 50 others including the Cachar district police chief Baibhab Chandrakant Nimbalkar were injured, who has been lately air lifted to Mumbai for better treatments.
Also read: Centre expects normalcy after “successful” talks between Mizoram and Assam to resolve border row
Lately the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel were deployed at the affected Lailapur-Vairengte disputed areas to help both the State police forces to maintain law and order situation.
The violent incident took place within 48 hours of Union home minister Amit Shah’s visit to Shillong, where in fact he met both the concerned chief ministers Pu Zoramthanga of Mizoram and Himanta Biswa Sarma of Assam, who is incidentally the convener of the Bharatiya Janata Party promoted north east democratic alliance (NEDA).
The Centre had also had discussions with Zoramthanga and Sarma, both of whom were engaged in a war of words in digital platforms over the matter and asked them to ensure peace along the disputed border areas.
A Mizo couple, who faced the ransacking on its return journey from Cachar, allegedly triggered the flare up on Monday July 26, 2021. Various Mizo individuals claim that the hooligans are illegal migrants in border areas. As it is, a large area of forests in Assam-Mizoram border has been encroached by suspected nationals and the Monday’s incident was an eruption of tension following an incident of vandalism by some of those lawbreakers.
Expressing utter dismay over the violent flareup, a northeast India based nationalist citizen’s forum has urged the Union government to amicably settle the border issues and also identify the encroachers in the disputed areas. “It is so unfortunate that the encroachers continue engaging in various criminal activities in those areas and on the way to safeguard those illegal migrants, our police personnel have to face the consequences,” said the Patriotic People’s Front Assam (PPFA) statement adding that the Centre should introspect over those criminals seriously while initiating to find a sustainable solution to the border issues.
*The writer is a senior journalist
