Mizo-Assam border tense again

Tension has flared up at the Assam-Mizoram border yet again with both the states blaming each other over a firing incident that is said to have left three persons injured in Hailakandi district of Assam early on Tuesday. The incident comes around three weeks after the bloodbath in Cachar district of Assam in which six Assam Police personnel were killed when their Mizoram counterparts opened fire on them over the interstate border dispute on July 26.

While Mizoram alleged Assam Police opened fire on three Mizo civilians, injuring one, on the boundary along Hailakandi (Assam)-Kolasib (Mizoram) districts, Assam claimed miscreants from the other side fired first, after which Assam Police retaliated. Hailakandi district deputy commissioner Rohan Jha told that some persons from Mizoram had entered nearly a kilometer inside Assam in the Bilaipur area of the district at around 2 am on Tuesday. He said these infiltrators were actually targeting a hillock in the area. “It was an attempt at land-grabbing,” he said. Mizoram, however, disputes Assam’s claim saying the police had fired on three innocent civilians injuring them. As per Kolasib district Deputy Commissioner H Lalthlangliana, three people from Vairengte had gone to Aitlang Tlangpui (Kolasib) to collect a “normal supply of meat” from their friend, who lives near the border, at Bilaipur in Hailakandi district, at 2 am Tuesday. According to officials on both the sides of the border, both the states are constructing roads in their respective territories.

The Assam official said that they were keeping a lookout on that particular hill (where the incident happened) since Mizoram had been constructing a road from Vairengte nearby. Assam had also been constructing a road on their side from Bilaipur to Dholaikhal outposts in Hailakandi district. Out of the 165-km-long Assam-Mizoram border, disputed at several points, Hailakandi district accounts for 99.1 km, which it shares with Mizoram’s Mamit and Kolasib districts.