- Monday, April 29, 2024
By: Shubham Ghosh
THE government of the northeastern Indian state of Mizoram on Saturday (31) rubbished allegations that “non-state actors” are involved in the border clash with the northern neighbouring state of Assam and that the flare-up was caused by drug-trafficking and cattle trade.
The state’s home minister, Lalchamliana, said that the violent clash that took place last week was the result of “unavoidable” countermeasure to protect the territorial integrity and ancestral land of the Mizos, which has been threatened over decades by encroachment from the Assamese side, The Mizoram Post reported on Sunday (1).
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“Drug trafficking and cattle trade have nothing to do with the boundary dispute nor was non-state actors involved in the recent clash. How can a responsible government be hand in glove with or be influenced by nonstate actors,” he asked.
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Conceding that some civilians were present at the violence site, the minister said they were there to protect their ancestral land when “outsiders” tried to grab it. He said civilians from Assam were also present at the spot. Six Assam Police personnel were killed in the violence while several more were injured.
It was only a few days before the Mizoram minister spoke out that Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma accused “non-state vested actors” for the clashes. He said decisions taken by his government, including crackdown on the drug route, might have angered those actors leading to the violence at the Assam-Mizoram border.
Sarma, who belongs to prime minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and came to power in May, said this while responding to the media’s question on the possibility of a foreign hand behind the violence. He said some people who entered India from Myanmar wanted to settle in Assam via Mizoram but his government ruined their plans.
“Then we hit at the drug route through Mizoram and Manipur to Assam,” he said.
“Finally, the tabling of the Assam Cattle Protection Bill in the state assembly also created apprehension though we have clarified that transportation to northeastern states will not be affected provided they have a valid permit,” the chief minister said while explaining the reasons that could have upset the “non-state actors”.
India Today cited sources in the Assam government last week to say the recent border clashes were the result of the crackdown of the Sarma government against the local drug cartel.
They said the crackdown hit the traffickers and their patrons, including those in Mizoram, the media outlet report said.
The sources claimed that the drug mafia and functionaries had close links with groups that operate from Myanmar with patronage in Mizoram. These links are used to facilitate the flow of drugs, including synthetic drugs from Myanmar to Mizoram from where they are taken to Assam and then the rest of the country, India Today cited them as saying.
The sources also claimed that the crackdown on drug trafficking which resulted in seizure and destruction of narcotics in huge numbers and arrest of many drug dealers has irked some politicians in Mizoram as they have alleged links with the drug cartels.
Increased surveillance by Assam’s law-enforcement agencies has also adversely affected the illegal betel nut trade between Mizoram and Myanmar. Some politicians in Mizoram are allegedly involved in the illegal trade, according to the sources in the Assam government.’
The Mizoram government though is not in agreement. Lalchamliana said Mizoram has launched a crackdown on drug smuggling much earlier than Assam, The Mizoram Post reported. He said both the governments of Mizoram and Assam along with their civil society organisations and churches have been making efforts to curb smuggling from Assam and the neighbouring countries for a long time now.
He said drugs, including heroin known as ‘Bhaga cap’ are also smuggled from Assam and several drug peddlers from that state have been arrested in the past. He also said Mizoram doesn’t import cow, one of the meat items of the state, from Assam since such supply came more from the eastern part of the state.
