Security tightened along Assam-Mizoram border

Silchar (Assam)/Aizawl  :  The Assam government has tightened vigil along the Assam-Mizoram border in Cachar district and deployed additional security forces after heightening of tension following destruction of a border pillar by unidentified miscreants, officials said here Saturday.

“Some miscreants of Mizoram last week have destroyed a border pillar near Dhalai in southern Assam,” Cachar Deputy Commissioner Harendra Deva Mahanta told reporters.

“Efforts are on to hold talks with deputy commissioner of Kolasib district in Mizoram to resolve the trouble,” Mahanta said.

A team of Assam government officials led by additional Deputy Commissioner Barenya Das visited the border area earlier this week. The state government has been apprised of the current situation.

Assam forest department ranger Ratnadip Dey filed an FIR with the police Thursday alleging that unidentified miscreants from Mizoram had destroyed a border pillar.

Several local organisations and NGOs of Cachar district have been organising protest rallies for the past few days to condemn the incident and demanded steps to immediately resolve the dispute between the two states.

On the other hand, several organisations of Mizoram, including Zoram Nationalist Party (ZNP), have alleged that the Assam government recently unilaterally set up a border pillar in the Mizoram territory “to grab” the state’s land.

The ZNP and several other organisations too organised rallies along the Assam-Mizoram border to protest the Assam government move.

The Mizoram government earlier this year had formed a committee to resolve its boundary disputes with Assam.

“The five-member committee led by legal expert and former minister C. Chawngkunga will study the inter-state border disputes and supposed to make recommendations to the state government within three months,” an official from Mizoram’s land revenue and settlement department told reporters.

Mizoram, a mountainous state, has a 123 km border with Assam, 66 km with Tripura and 96 km with Manipur, with which it has no dispute.

It also has an international border of 404 km with Myanmar and 318 km with Bangladesh.

The Meghalaya-Assam, Arunachal Pradesh-Assam and Mizoram-Assam boundary disputes occasionally create trouble between villagers, security forces and officials in these states.