Fresh trouble on Assam-Meghalaya border; police officer injured in scuffle

A police officer of Meghalaya was injured on Wednesday while trying to control a situation after large groups of people from the state and neighbouring Assam came face to face near a disputed inter-state border area which also witnessed trouble on the previous day, officials said. The deputy superintendent of police ranked officer of Ri-Bhoi district is now out of danger.

Police officials of Assam and Meghalaya said forces from both sides have reached the spot and brought the situation under control.

The incident took place at Umlaper in West Karbi Anglong district of Assam where a group of around 250-300 people from Ri-Bhoi district of Meghalaya went to meet the two men with whom Assam police personnel allegedly misbehaved on Monday night and protestors from across the border damaged a bunker during a protest on Tuesday.

However, during their approach to the village, local residents blocked the road and engaged in an altercation with the people from Meghalaya, a police official of West Karbi Anglong district said.

Police teams from both states arrived at the scene to disperse the crowd, Ri-Bhoi district SP N Lamare said.

A deputy SP was injured in the melee. He was taken to a nearby medical facility and he is out of danger now, Lamare said.

Tension started at the Umlapher area on Tuesday morning after one personnel of the Assam Police camp allegedly misbehaved with two men from the bordering state on Monday night at a checkpoint.

A group of people from Meghalaya on Tuesday allegedly damaged a bunker of the Assam police near the inter-state border while protesting against the alleged ill-treatment.

The situation at Umlapher, one of the 18 villages under a disputed block along the interstate border, was then defused after the intervention of senior police officials of the two North-eastern neighbours.

Meghalaya was carved out of Assam as a separate state in 1972. The problem between the two states started when Meghalaya challenged the Assam Reorganisation Act of 1971, which gave Blocks I and II of the Mikir Hills or present-day Karbi Anglong region to Assam.

Meghalaya contends that both these blocks formed part of the erstwhile United Khasi and Jaintia Hills district when it was notified in 1835. At present, there are 12 points of dispute along the 733-km Assam-Meghalaya border.

The chief ministers of the two states had held two rounds of talks since July at the end of which it was decided to set up two regional committees to resolve the vexed border disputes in a phased manner.