Three weeks after a violent clash between police forces of Assam and Mizoram, a firing incident last week escalated tension on the disputed interstate border again.
While Mizoram alleged that Assam police personnel fired on its civilians injuring one, the neighbouring state claimed that cops only returned the fire after miscreants from the other side of the border sprayed bullets on them.
H Lalthlangliana, district deputy commissioner of Kolasib, Mizoram, said the firing incident occurred at the disputed Aitlang area bordering Assam’s Hailakandi district when three residents of Vairengte town went there to collect meat from a friend, a resident of Bilaipur in Assam, who invited them to come.
One person was injured in the firing by Assam Police personnel who were guarding the inter-state border, he claimed. Hailakandi Superintendent of Police Gaurav Upadhyay said that an exchange of firing took place but declined to share details. “No casualty has been reported on both sides,” he said.
A senior district official, however, said that miscreants from the Mizoram side showered bullets in darkness from the top of Darasing Hills when workers were constructing a road leading to the border from Bilaipur under the MGNREGA scheme. “In reply to the firing from the Mizoram side, Assam Police personnel also fired several rounds,” the official said.
Upadhyay said that he along with the Deputy Commissioner of Hailakandi, Rohan Jha, rushed to the spot immediately after the firing at around 2 am. “Huge security forces have been deployed in the area,” he added. Two days after the July 26 stand-off, it was decided at a meeting convened by the Ministry of Home Affairs in New Delhi that a neutral central force will be deployed along the disturbed Assam-Mizoram border.
Chief secretaries and DGPs of the two states attended the meeting chaired by Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla. State police forces, however, have continued to guard the border. Representatives of Assam and Mizoram held talks in Aizawl on August 5 and agreed to resolve the inter-state border dispute amicably.
“Representatives of Governments of Assam and Mizoram agree to take all necessary measures to promote, preserve and maintain peace and harmony amongst people living in Assam and Mizoram, particularly in border areas,” a joint statement issued after the meeting had said.