Samaw.com

Silchar/Aizawl, June 20: Trouble erupted this morning when members of the Mizo Zirlai Pawl (MZP), a students’ front of Mizoram, tried to build a shed on the disputed boundary with Assam on National Highway 54 and the Assam police prevented them from doing so.

Sources in Silchar said trouble began last evening when MZP activists occupied a portion of the forest land at Lailapur enclave in Assam’s Cachar district. They began constructing the shed in the area to buttress their claim that it belonged to their state.

In Mizoram, Kolasib district deputy commissioner Dawngliana said the MZP activists had already dug four holes for the pillars when Assam police intervened and told them to stop work. At this, the MZP called up the sub-divisional officer (sadar) at Vairengte, the nearest village on the border, who rushed to the spot.

(Northeast India map showing Assam-Mizoram border dispute area, in red)

Dawngliana said when Mizoram police and other officials arrived on the scene, they discussed the scenario with their Assam counterparts. The former placated the latter and the construction of the shed was allowed to go on.

However, Cachar superintendent of police Sayten Gogoi said a large contingent of security forces from Assam had cleared the area of encroachers and gained “area domination” there.

Kolasib superintendent of police Lalbiakthanga, who was at the site from late morning, said this evening that trouble would have erupted but for the presence of Mizoram police as the students were unwavering in their objective and the Assam authorities were also bent on stopping the construction.

Saying that they had somehow stalled the Assam authorities, Lalbiakthanga added that the construction was going on and that he had given clear instructions to the students to leave the place once the shed was completed.

It is understood that the Assam authorities, who did not want the construction in the first place, have agreed to let the shed be built on the condition that it would be dismantled once the students leave.

The Assam-Mizoram boundary has been a bone of contention between the two states for many decades.

Source: The Telegraph, Kolkata