Police personnel stand guard outside Mizoram House in Guwahati. (Photo: PTI)Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma stressed upon a probe by a neutral agency into the clashes at the border. “We will be very happy to join in any investigation. But why is the case not being handed over to a neutral agency, especially when the place of occurrence is well within the constitutional territory of Assam? Have already conveyed this to Mizoram CM Zoramthanga,” he added.
The border dispute between Assam and Mizoram has turned into a full-blown crisis when Assam summoned six officials of Mizoram’s Kolasib district and sent police after the state’s lone Rajya Sabha MP.
Mizoram retaliated by disclosing that police of Kolasib district — it borders Assam’s Cachar district and its SP is among six summoned by Assam — had lodged an FIR on July 26, the day of the incident, against Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and six officials.
The dispute started when six Assam Police personnel and a civilian were killed in violent clashes along the border of the two states. For the last month, a tense eyeball-to-eyeball situation has prevailed at the Assam-Mizoram border along the Cachar-Kolasib districts, with security personnel of both states deployed there.
It was not clear which side had fired first as each side blamed the other. According to Assam Police officers, “miscreants” from the Mizo side started pelting stones at government officials at Lailapur town on the Cachar border. But a statement from the Mizoram Home Minister said “around 200 Assam armed police led by IGP, Assam Police accompanied by DC, Cachar, SP, Cachar and DFO, Cachar came to Vairengte Auto-rickshaw stand at around 11.30 am” and “forcibly crossed the duty post manned by CRPF personnel stationed there and overran a duty post manned by one section of Mizoram police personnel.”
Since then, the Centre had to step in and call the Chief Secretaries and Director Generals of Police of the two states to Delhi as part of efforts to dial down tensions.
Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma pays tribute to the Assam Police personnel who died during Monday's clashes. (Photo: PTI)
Under fire for alleged “threatening statements” about the violence that broke out along his state’s border with Assam this week, Mizoram’s sole Rajya Sabha MP K Vanlalvena has been summoned for questioning by the Assam Police on August 1.
The Assam Police has said it will take “lawful action” against Vanlalvena, who is said to have made threatening statements in question during an interview with news channels. A four-member team of the Assam Police arrived at his home and office, but were unable to find him, PTI reported. The team pasted the notice on his residence. Read more
Will be very happy to join in any investigation. But why is the case not being handed over to a neutral agency, especially when the place of occurrence is well within the constitutional territory of Assam? Have already conveyed this to Mizoram CM Zoramthanga, Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma said.
In what appears to be one of the most formidable tests of his political career, Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma is confronted with a challenge to politically manage the embers left by the July 26 clash on the Assam-Mizoram border between the Assam and Mizoram Police, which has left six Assam Police personnel dead and a trail of injuries on both sides. Unlike successful electoral campaigns and forging winnable political coalitions, tasks that Sarma has effortlessly accomplished in his earlier stint as the convenor of the BJP-led North East Democratic Alliance (NEDA), managing border disputes is completely new to him and may entail a different gamble altogether. (Read Professor Kham Khan Suan Hausing’s take on the crisis)
Two days after clashes on the Assam-Mizoram border left seven people dead on the Assam side, both states have agreed in principle to withdraw troops from the disputed site, even as modalities are still being worked out.
While Assam has withdrawn its troops, Mizoram Police has not only continued to hold its position but also reinforced its posts, sources said on Wednesday. At North Block, Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla held a meeting of more than two hours with chief secretaries and DGPs of both states in an effort to ease the tension. (Read Deeptiman Tiwary and Tora Agarwala's report)
Cachar SP and Deputy Commissioner (DC) survey areas bordering Mizoram for setting up new police posts there. “We're setting up new posts to secure our borders. They (Mizoram) have constructed roads and established camps inside forests in our territory," DC Keerthi Jalli said.
Four days after six Assam Police personnel were killed in violent clashes at the Assam-Mizoram border, the Assam government Thursday issued an unusual travel advisory asking people not to travel to Mizoram citing a “threat to personal safety”. Mizoram, meanwhile, objected to a large contingent of Assam Police personnel being mobilised at the interstate border. (Read Tora Agarwala's report)
The Assam Police has summoned Mizoram’s lone Rajya Sabha MP K Vanlalvena on August 1 for questioning over his alleged “threatening statement” in connection with the Monday violence along the interstate border, and pasted a notice at his Delhi residence.
The Assam Police also said it will take “lawful action” against Vanlalvena who had allegedly made a “threatening” statement over the border clash in which five policemen and a civilian were killed. Read more