The Assam government on Wednesday asked the authorities of districts bordering Mizoram to step up vigil as the economic blockade on National Highway 306 — lifeline of Mizoram — continued for the eighth day. Top officials of the two northeastern States said efforts were on to ease tension along the 164.6-km border after the last rites of a 48-year-old man from Lailapur in Assam’s Cachar district who died in Mizoram were performed.
Emotions ran high after the man identified as Intiaz Ali Laskar died in a hospital at Vairengte in Mizoram’s Kolasib district on November 1. While the Assam government said he was abducted by miscreants, the Mizoram government claimed he was a drug dealer who succumbed to injuries sustained while trying to evade capture by members of a Mizo tribal NGO.
The Mizoram police had handed Mr. Laskar’s body over to their Assam counterparts on Tuesday. His relatives and neighbours had initially refused to receive the body, but officials in Assam intervened to cool tempers.
“The last rites were performed smoothly. The Cachar and Karimganj [two Assam districts bordering Mizoram] administrations and police have been exercising restraint and discussing with their Mizoram counterparts to resolve the border issue soon,” Assam’s Home Commissioner-Secretary G.D. Tripathi said.
Assam’s Chief Secretary Jishnu Barua and DGP Bhaskar Jyoti Mahanta, who reviewed the overall law and order in southern Assam, said the border district heads have been asked to maintain constant vigil along the inter-State border.
“We are exploring all the options available for the solution of the border imbroglio amicably and peacefully,” Mr. Barua said, adding that Central forces would be deployed along the border within a couple of days for ensuring peace.
“We are absolutely clear about our constitutional boundary. It is clearly defined by the Mizoram Act of 1986 when Mizoram was created. Our official stand is that the constitutional boundary of Assam is sacrosanct and we will stick to that,” he said.
Call by Muslim bodies
Two Mizoram-based Muslim organisations have appealed for lifting the economic blockade by some groups in Assam. The Mizoram Muslim Welfare Society and the Aizawl Mosque Committee also urged people living on either side of the border not to relate Mr. Laskar’s death with the border standoff.
“Economic blockade is not the solution to the border dispute, especially in the present scenario where everyone is suffering because of COVID-19,” the two organisations said in a joint statement, pointing out that many people from border areas of Assam earn their livelihoods in Mizoram.