In what can be called fresh border violence, six police officers from Assam were killed. Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma informed about this news from the disputed Assam-Mizoram border.
Reports of firing from the border area of Cachar district and Mizoram’s Kolasib district have made the situation tense. Also, there were attacks on government vehicles.
This comes two days after Union Home Minister Amit Shah met all CMs of the northeast at Shillong.
Mr Shah had met the two, Assam and Mizoram CMs to resolve the border issue, as per ANI news agency.
Biswa Sarma later tweeted that he has spoken to his Mizoram counterpart. The seven sister states have been quite disturbed due to topography and ethnic diversity.
Assam-Mizoram border dispute
Let us have a look at what went wrong in history that has now become this big a bone of contention.
There is a 165-km Assam-Mizoram boundary with two border demarcations since the days of British colonial rule. There has been a disagreement over which demarcation to follow.
So, British tea plantations surfaced in the Cachar plains – the Barak Valley. It now comprises the districts of Cachar, Hailakandi and Karimganj. Their expansion led to problems with the Mizos whose home was the Lushai Hills.
In August 1875, the southern boundary of the Cachar district was issued in the Assam Gazette. As per the Mizos, this was the fifth time the British had drawn the boundary between the Lushai Hills and the Cachar plains. Also, this was the only time when it was done after consultations with the Mizo chiefs. Later, after two years, this became the basis for the Inner Line Reserve Forest demarcation in the Gazette.
But in 1933, the boundary between Lushai Hills and Manipur was demarcated. Now the Manipur boundary began from the trijunction of Lushai Hills, Cachar district of Assam and Manipur state. However, the Mizos do not accept this demarcation. They point to the 1875 boundary which was drawn in consultation with their chiefs.
Mizoram government has also constituted a boundary commission to deal with the demarcation of the border.
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