Assam-Mizoram border row: Highway blockade lifted after Centre's intervention

Mizoram had refused to pull out, arguing that forces were deployed within its territory

Assam government on Monday facilitated movement of trucks carrying essentials into Mizoram with security cover after 12 days of blockade of the NH-54 following a border row.

In a statement, circle officer of Sonai in South Assam's Cachar district, Sudeep Nath said 21 loaded trucks crossed the inter-state border at Lailapur in Cachar district and moved into Mizoram with police escorts. Passenger vehicles also started movement on Monday. Empty trucks from Mizoram side also entered Assam, he said.

This comes a day after union home secretary Ajai Kumar Bhalla held a meeting of top officials of Assam and Mizoram via video conferencing and instructed Assam to ensure that blockade of the highway was lifted immediately. Bhalla also asked both the states to withdraw their police forces from the "disputed area" to facilitate deployment of central forces in order to defuse the tension since October 9.

Lailapur has been on the boil since October 9 when at least 20 shops and houses were burnt down by suspected miscreants from Mizoram. Several people were injured in clashes which happened in the wake of the incident. Two schools were also attacked with bombs by suspected miscreants from Mizoram. This prompted Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal to seek union home minister Amit Shah's intervention.

Nath, however, said there has been no untoward incident since Saturday and the situation was limping back to normalcy.

The border dispute between the two states is a long problem. Assam says the boundary demarcated in 1933 notification should be maintained while Mizoram insists that the same drawn in the Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation, 1875 should be the actual boundary.