Fresh Assam, Mizoram Standoff Flares Up Month After Deadly Clashes
Guwahati: A month after the fierce clashes between Assam and Mizoram Police over a border dispute, a fresh standoff has been brewing since Thursday at Khulichara, another border area close to the site of last month’s violence.
The fresh dispute erupted after authorities from Mizoram objected to the construction of a road under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana by Assam. Assam, meanwhile, alleges locals from the other side of the state border have stirred the trouble.
According to the Assam Police, a group of armed men from the Mizoram side tried to stop construction workers who were building the road in Khulichara village along the inter-state border in the Dholai subdivision of southern Assam’s Cachar district.
Khulichara is about 12 km from Lailapur where last month’s clash left six Assam policemen dead and over 45 injured in an two-hours long gunbattle while Chief Ministers of the two states bitterly sparred on Twitter.
A truce was finally brokered after talks led by Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
Though the construction has been stopped for now, senior police officers from Assam Ramandeep Kaur, Superintendent of Police of Cachar district and Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG) Debojyoti Mukherjee and a police team rushed to the spot and increased deployment along the area.
Ms Kaur said, “Talks have been initiated at the top level and the talks with the counterparts are going on and I assume the issue will get resolved. They have once again violated these ground rules and have entered our territory.”
Both the police forces have set up camps in the area. Central forces are also deployed in the area to avoid any conflict between the armed police forces of both Assam and Mizoram.
Mizoram claims Assam was building the road within their area.
“Our locals objected, and they brought the violation by Assam to our notice. We had to object as they had entered Mizoram territory. We are trying to peacefully defuse this issue,” Vanlalfaka Ralte, SP of Mizoram’s Kolasib district told NDTV over the telephone.
