Barak Valley People's Forum appeals media for help

Aizawl, Jul 30: The Barak Valley People's Forum have appealed to the media to help them achieve long lasting peace between the people of Assam's Barak Valley and the Mizos.

Official sources here today said that a press conference was held at Silchar last evening where journalists from all over Mizoram had been invited through the Silchar Mizoram House.

Forum president A Bulbul said that an effort had been made to involve as many journalists as possible to ensure maximum coverage.

''We want peace between the two states because disharmony is not at all in the interest of the people of the two states,'' he said.

He pointed out that Bagha and Dholai in the Cachar district were home to miscreants, who took control of the villages by night, where no one, including the villagers, were safe.

Coincidentally, one Mizo youth was killed and another injured by miscreants at Bagha under Dholai police station on the night of July 18, sparking off communal tension in the region. The miscreants, who had been arrested by Dholai police, had also damaged an auto-rickshaw.

Meanwhile, a meeting between Mizo Zirlai Pawl(Mizo students' association) Vairengte sub-headquarters and All Assam Students' Union Cachar district at Vairengte's tourist lodge last evening resolved that the Assam government should give Rs five lakh to the family of the deceased, Rs two lakh to the injured and Rs one lakh to the auto-rickshaw owner.

However, the Vairengte joint action committee had been demanding Rs 10 lakh for the deceased, Rs five lakh for the injured and Rs one lakh for the damaged auto from the Assam government and deployment of two companies of armed forces at Vairengte from the Mizoram government, for which they set August 14 as the deadline.

''Failure to meet the demand would mean the Vairengte JAC commencing their 'action plans' from August 15 onwards,'' they told the visiting Mizoram Food Minister K Sangthuama on Saturday.

UNI