Border tension escalates again, Assam police fire at Mizoram civilians

Administration in Mizoram' Kolasib district has asked its residents to avoid visiting the areas bordering Assam in order to eschew fresh tension, in view of a firing on Monday on three people from their side.

In a directive, deputy commissioner of Kolasib, H.Lalthlangliana asked its residents not to visit the areas where security forces were deployed following July 26 gunbattle in neighbouring Cachar district in which six Assam policemen died and several others were injured.

The DC said Assam police personnel fired at three residents from Aitlangpui village in Kolasib, situated close to Bilaipur village in Assam's Karimganj district at around 2 am on Monday.

The three Mizoram residents had reportedly gone to the area to meet a person from Bilaipur following an invitation. One of the civilians who was injured while fleeing the scene was treated and released from a public health centre at Vairengte, the DC said.

Kolasib DC also conveyed his dismay to his counterpart in Karimganj for the firing incident.

But police in Assam side said they had stepped up vigil in the area following the recent tension and the three people had opened fire at them after being asked to stop and identify them. "We retaliated and they fled away," a source in Karimganj said.

Tension has been brewing on the Assam-Mizoram boundary since the July 26 firing. The two-state governments, however, decided to de-escalate tension and resolved to continue talks for solving the issues regarding their borders.

Assam and Mizoram share a 164.6-km long boundary but there has been a dispute over their boundary for decades. Mizoram says that the boundary decided in 1875 be accepted while Assam stress on "Constitutional boundary" as agreed in 1978 when Mizoram became a full-fledged separate state. This was as per a notification issued in 1933.