Several injured in Mizoram-Assam border clash

Aizawl, Feb 09: Several people were injured in a clash due to fresh dispute on the Mizoram-Assam border near Bairabi town in Mizoram's Kolasib district on Tuesday, state police said.

The area is also called Kachurthal by Assam and falls within Hailakandi district. The clash between the border residents of the two states took place when two employees of Mizoram power and electricity department and a member of Bairabi village council who had gone for a survey were allegedly beaten up by some people of Assam when they took some photos, the police said.

There was, however, no casualty in the clash, the police said. Assam has allegedly constructed a link road into the disputed land. The situation was brought under control after security forces were deployed on both sides of the inter-state border.

Hailakandi Deputy commissioner Meghnidhi Dahal and superintendent of police Pabindra Kumar Nath rushed to the site to take stock of the situation.

The last incident of border dispute took place on August 9, 2020, when a farm hut was set on fire and a plantation was damaged near Thinghlun village in west Mizoram's Mamit district.

On August 17 there was a violent clash along Mizorams boundary with Assam's Cachar district in which a group of people torched makeshift bamboo huts and stalls erected along NH-306. More than seven people from the two states were injured in the clash prompting the Centre to intervene.

Central armed forces were deployed on either side of the border after yet another clash in November and meetings chaired by Union Home Secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla were held. Three districts of Mizoram - Aizawl, Kolasib and Mamit share a 164.6-km-long inter-state border with Assam's Cachar, Hailakandi and Karimganj district.