- Monday, May 06, 2024
By: Shubham Ghosh
THE two north-eastern Indian states of Assam and Mizoram have decided to settle their ongoing differences peacefully after their long-running border disagreement erupted in violence last week resulting in death of a number of policemen and injuries to dozens.
Clashes broke out last Monday (26) on the demarcation between the two states that saw six police personnel on the Assamese side dead. Blame game continued for a while between the two states’ politicians and both sides even filed police reports against top leaders from the other state.
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On Sunday, both Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and Mizoram chief minister Zoramthanga tweeted saying they would now seek an “amicable” approach to the dispute.
While Sarma highlighted the “spirit of the north-east”, Zoramthanga urged the local people to refrain from posting “sensitive messages” on social media.
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“What happened along the Assam-Mizoram border is unacceptable to the people of both states… Border disputes can only be resolved through discussion,” Sarma, who belongs to prime minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), tweeted.
Zoramthanga heads the Mizo National Front, which is an ally of the BJP’s alliance in the north-east called North East Democratic Alliance or NEDA.
While Mizoram accused Assam of encroaching its territory in the wake of the policemen’s death, Assam counter-accused villagers from Mizoram of encroaching on reserve forest land.
Mizoram was a part of Assam, which shares borders with all other northeastern states, and became a state in its own right in 1987. The border argument between the two states is several decades old and is still continuing.
On Monday (2), media reports in India said the Modi government might rely on satellite mapping to define the boundaries to help resolve the disputes in the region, AFP reported.
