Samaw.com

AIZAWL, July 19 (IANS) - A Mizoram village was tense Thursday and non-Mizo settlers in Aizawl were asked to stay indoors after a 26-year-old Mizo was murdered in neighbouring Assam.

Kolasib District Superintendent of Police Lalbiakthanga Khiangte said Kapliana and Lallianthanga, both residents of Mizoram-Assam border Vairengte village, stole an auto rickshaw belonging to Lalngaihzuala, also of the same village, and spent the whole day Wednesday in Dholai in Cachar district of Assam.

Following some reported altercations between the duo and some residents of Dholai, three people chased the two and killed Kapliana while Lallianthanga was injured and admitted at the Gungur Hospital in nearby Silchar, Khiangte said.

He said that tension was mounting in Vairengte and the police force alerted to prevent any untoward incidence while senior police officials rushed to Dholai.

The sub-divisional police officer of Vairengte said that communal tension was high and situation was very ‘volatile but under control’.

‘Civil authorities and the police are doing everything we can to have normalcy,’ he said.

In Aizawl, non-Mizo settlers feared backlash by Mizos. Non-Mizos were asked to stay alert by police and landlords instructed their non-Mizo tenants to take extra precautions.

Two students’ organisations, the Mizo Zirlai Pawl and the Mizo Students’ Union, have served a notice to all non-Mizo settlers in this capital to stay indoors till July 25.

‘The Assam police must arrest the culprits, who must not escape unpunished. Meanwhile, we want all non-Mizo settlers of Aizawl to stay indoors for their own safety. We will not be responsible for the consequence if they do not do so,’ said P.C. Laltlansanga, president of the Mizo Zirlai Pawl, the largest student body of the state