Aizawl/Silchar/Hailakandi/Guwahati, August 8

Long lines of trucks from the rest of the country rumbled into Mizoram across a disputed border with neighbouring Assam on Sunday, some 13 days after a bloody clash between the police forces of the two states.

After assurances of police escorts given on Saturday, truckers in ones and twos started moving out of Dholai near the tense border where they had parked their trucks, ever since violence broke out.

What was a trickle on Saturday night became a flood of vehicles moving in convoys, guarded by police escorts, ferrying essential supplies including medicines, diesel and cooking gas to landlocked Mizoram, which had been complaining of shortages of medicines and gasoline.

Truckers had kept their trucks parked and refused to move even after an informal blockade enforced by locals in Assam soon after violence broke out was lifted more than a week back. 

They started moving after two Assam Ministers Ashok Singhal and Parimal Suklabaidya on Saturday convinced them it was safe to travel across the border to Mizoram.

Suklabaidya said movement of essential commodities from Hailakandi district to Mizoram, which had been hit since the violent face-off between the two states, too resumed from Sunday.

Transportation through rail would begin once tracks, which were damaged during demonstrations following the July 26 flare-up, are repaired, he added.

Kolasib Superintendent of Police (SP), Vanlalfaka Ralte said more than 50 vehicles have entered Mizoram since Saturday night till Sunday morning.

“Traffic movement between the two neighbouring states as of now is quite smooth…However, we are still on alert as untoward incident can happen at any time,” Ralte, who is camping at Vairengte, told PTI over the phone.

 Cachar Superintendent of Police Ramandeep Kaur also confirmed to PTI that vehicles “have been moving under heavy police escorts. Though initially there was some resistance from locals, after the two ministers held negotiations, the vehicles started moving”.

Silchar’s Mizoram House Liaison Officer (LO) Kaptluanga said that before trucking began in earnest, some  9 Mizoram-bound vehicles were attacked and vandalised by miscreants at Lailapur on Saturday evening.

 he resumption of  trucking happened after Assam and Mizoram ministers met last week to thrash out differences and agreed to maintain calm along the border.

Some drivers however remained reluctant to move across the border. Rahul Hussain, a stranded driver, said they are willing to enter Mizoram but demanded written assurances.

Despite an attempt by Union Home Minister Amit Shah to resolve a raft of long-standing border disputes between Assam and its neighbours earlier last month, at least six Assam Police personnel and one civilian were killed and more than 50 people injured in a fire-fight between the police of the two states on July 26, which broke out over a forested patch of the border near Dholai village in Cachar.

The two states share a 164.6-km border between Assam’s Cachar, Hailakandi and Karimganj districts, and Mizoram’s Kolasib, Mamit and Aizawl districts.

 Both states have differing interpretations of their territorial border. While Mizoram believes that its border lies along an ‘inner line’ drawn up in 1875 to protect tribals from outside influence, Assam goes by a district demarcation done in the 1930s. PTI