MHA asks Mizoram, Assam to withdraw police forces from 'disputed areas'

The border dispute between the two states is a long-standing problem

The growing tension on the Assam-Mizoram border prompted the union ministry of home affairs (MHA) to instruct the two states on Sunday to withdraw their police forces from the "disputed" areas to facilitate deployment of central forces.

The union home secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla chaired a meeting via video-conferencing with top officials of both the states in which it was instructed that the blockade of the NH-54 in Assam side following the border tension must also be withdrawn immediately. The highway that connects Mizoram with Assam has remained blocked for 12 days. The highway was blocked following the death of a person from Lailapur in Assam's Cachar district, the last border post towards Mizoram, on October 27.

The meeting comes a day after Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal called up union home minister Amit Shah seeking the Centre's intervention.

"The Union Home Secretary pointed that while concerns of both states need to be addressed properly, at the same time the graded withdrawal of the state police forces from the disputed area need to be done earnestly by both the states," said a statement issued by Mizoram home department on Sunday evening.

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. Later a Bengali medium school was demolished in a blast at Lailapur recently. Another school was also damaged on Sunday (November 7) in a bomb explosion.

Hours before the meeting, a Congress team led by the Congress Legislature Party, Debabrata Saikia was stopped near a bridge under Lailapur by Mizoram police.

Saikia said people in the area were living in terror as Mizo civilians as well as Mizoram police personal in fatigues threatened the non-Mizo residents of the border area living within the territory of Assam. "They have put up a barrier on a bridge which was constructed by the Assam government under PMGSY during 2011-16 when Girendra Mallik was the local MLA. We requested at least 5 to 10 persons be allowed to cross the barrier on the bridge but they did not allow us," Saikia said.

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.

Mizoram Chief Secretary, Lalnunmawia Chuaungo told reporters at Aizawl that three companies of BSF which have sent to the state by the Centre will be deployed at the borders areas while the Assam government agreed to take steps to open all blockades of the highway immediately.