Assam-Mizoram border tension: Central forces deployed along the inter-state boundary

GUWAHATI

Central forces have been deployed along the Assam-Mizoram border as the tension between the two states continues to mount.

Assam Deputy Inspector General (DIG), Southern Range, Dilip Dey, told TNT-The Northeast Today on Friday that three SSB companies have been deployed in Cachar and Karimganj districts in Assam, while three Border Security Force (BSF) contingents have been stationed at the border areas of Mizoram.

“Two Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) companies are being deployed at Lailapur and Khulicherra along the Cachar-Mizoram border, while one SSB company is being deployed at Medlicherra in the Karimganj-Mizoram border,” Dey said.

Officials from the district administrations of Cachar (Assam) and Kolasib (Mizoram) had, on Thursday, carried out a joint inspection of areas along the Assam-Mizoram borders ahead of the deployment of central armed police forces along the inter-state boundary.

The tension between the two states has been prevailing since last month after miscreants set fire to several huts and shops in the Lailapur area of Cachar district along the Assam-Mizoram border.

While talks between the two states remain inconclusive, the tension flared up after Intazul Ali Laskar (45) of Assam, died in a hospital in Vairengte, Mizoram.

They arrested Laskar with 420 mg of heroin in Vairengte by state Excise and Narcotics department personnel.

While Mizoram officials claimed that Laskar was a drug peddler, his relatives alleged that miscreants abducted and murdered him.

The Assam-Mizoram interstate boundary dispute has affected the movement of trucks as the blockade on National Highway- 306 linking the two states continues.

(Edited by Andre Kongri)