- Thursday, May 02, 2024
By: Shubham Ghosh
THE age-old boundary dispute between the northeastern Indian states of Assam and Mizoram saw a violent escalation on Monday (26) resulting in the death of six personnel of Assam Police.
Fifty policemen were injured, including the superintendent of police of Assam’s Cachar district, Nimbalkar Vaibhav Chandrakant, who sustained a bullet injury in the leg.
Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma confirmed the death of the state police personnel and expressed his grief. In a Twitter post, he said, “I am deeply pained to inform that six brave jawans of @assampolice have sacrificed their lives while defending constitutional boundary of our state at the Assam-Mizoram border. My heartfelt condolences to the bereaved families.”
Sarma said there was “clear evidence” which “unfortunately shows that Mizoram Police has used Light Machine Guns (LMG)” against Assam Police personnel. “This is sad, unfortunate and speaks volumes about the intention and gravity of the situation,” he said on Twitter.
His Mizoram counterpart Zoramthanga told The Indian Express that there was no tension in the area for more than a year since the intervention of the Centre.
“Yesterday, after the North-East chief ministers’ meeting in Shillong, I had passed the area and everything was normal. This morning, the IGP (inspector general of police) of Assam and about 200 Assam policemen came to the Mizoram side. Because it was only a stone’s throw away from our sub-divisional headquarters, it created a tense situation. Firing started on both sides and there were casualties,” he said.
He said talks were held between him, Sharma and Union home minister Amit Shah over the violence.
“The Home Minister said the Assam Police should vacate the post and like before, CRPF should take over. So now the CRPF has taken over,” he said, adding that he had also invited Sarma to come over to Aizawl, the capital of Mizoram, to discuss the issue.
“He (Sarma) said he would… we want to settle it amicably,” he said.
Earlier in the day, Sarma and Zoramthanga had an argument on Twitter, accusing each other’s state of fuelling the trouble.
