Silchar (Assam): It is raining heavily and the stretch leading to Kulichera, another major flashpoint between the two states, where border outposts of Assam Police and Mizoram Police are situated is smeared in mud.
The two posts, barely 50 m apart, are separated by a nullah, and it’s a LoC-like situation — police personnel eyeball to eyeball, with automatic weapons pointed right at each other.
A rickety bamboo bridge connects the two posts and all personnel have been instructed to not leave the posts unguarded at any point.
At this battlefront-like border, tensions between the two states have been simmering for nearly a year. It is at Kulichera on the Assam-Mizoram border where both states have been laying claim to a five-km stretch of land.
It all began last year in November, when miscreants from Mizoram allegedly bombed a lower primary school, which was constructed by the Assam government in 2009, claiming that it was built on their land. Then, on 8 July, Assam started building a pucca road in the area, leading to the school, claiming the area to be their territory, to which Mizoram objected and built a new post ahead of the school.
In fact, the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel deployed in the area were anticipating a flare-up at this border and had alerted the Ministry of Home Affairs just a week before the 26 July clash at Varaingte-Lailapur border.
ThePrint’s photo editor Praveen Jain brings you images from yet another sensitive Assam-Mizoram border area.
Subscribe to our channels on YouTube & Telegram
Why news media is in crisis & How you can fix it
India needs free, fair, non-hyphenated and questioning journalism even more as it faces multiple crises.
But the news media is in a crisis of its own. There have been brutal layoffs and pay-cuts. The best of journalism is shrinking, yielding to crude prime-time spectacle.
ThePrint has the finest young reporters, columnists and editors working for it. Sustaining journalism of this quality needs smart and thinking people like you to pay for it. Whether you live in India or overseas, you can do it here.