Assam-Mizoram border dispute cropped up again following an illegal construction of a bridge…
The dispute between the Assam-Mizoram border wrecked up again following the construction of the bridge by Mizoram, which falls under the Assam territory as alleged by the Assam Government.
Earlier after the incident which took place on 26th July where six police personnel were killed and several others injured. The two states held a peace summit and agreed to withdraw state forces from the border.
However, the Assam government alleged on Sunday that Mizoram officials entered its territory in Hailakandi and started constructing a bridge, in a fresh escalation between the two Northeastern states.
“The Mizoram authorities were constructing a bridge over a ‘nullah’ at Kachurthal, which borders Mizoram on one side and Assam on the other. Since the construction was being done on Assam’s territory, necessary authorization from our side should have been taken. But the Mizoram side didn’t do that,” Hailakandi SP Gaurav Upadhyay said.
Upadhyay alleged that around 40-50 security personnel from Mizoram reached the bridge site on Saturday and few of them crossed to the Assam side “in complete violation of the joint statement issued by both states on August 5 to maintain peace in the border area”.
“The Officer-In-Charge (OC) of Ramnathpur police station and his patrolling team immediately reached the spot and stopped the construction work, calling it a trespass by Mizoram as they had no authority to build a bridge on the Assam side,” he said.
The local police team from Assam urged the Mizoram security personnel to leave the Assam land, but they refused to do so, he alleged.
According to Mizoram officials, the bridge was being constructed on its side at Zophai near Bairabi town.
Meanwhile, Mizoram’s Kolasib deputy commissioner H Lalthlangliana told PTI that personnel of the Assam Police entered the state’s territory at Zophai near Bairabi town and allegedly stole some construction materials, including iron rods, from the bridge construction site on Friday.
The theft case filed by the Mizoram police against Assam officials for stealing construction materials was withdrawn on Sunday evening after Assam police returned the construction material, officials in Mizoram said. The Assam police, however, denied taking the material.
