Days after the longstanding border dispute between Mizoram and Assam led to a fresh bout of violence, movement of trucks carrying essential commodities resumed between the north-eastern states on Wednesday, PTI reported. Several trucks with essentials and petroleum products started moving on the National Highway 306 from Lailapur in Assam to Mizoram’s Kolasib.
Residents of Assam’s Lailapur began the blockade on October 28, demanding the withdrawal of Mizoram forces from what they claimed was Assam’s territory. Mizoram refused to pull out, arguing that the forces were deployed within its area. The blockade was “partially lifted” on Monday following the meeting of chief secretaries of both states.
Finally, the border district administration of the two states intervened. A meeting was held among representatives of truckers’ association, officials of Assam’s Cachar and Mizoram’s Kolasib district administrations at Lailapur along the interstate border on Wednesday.
Assam Deputy Inspector General of Police Southern Range Dilip Dey said the representatives of the truckers’ association agreed to start movement of essentials after they were persuaded by the civil and police administration of Cachar. Dey said that he also proposed to provide security escort for trucks and other vehicles entering Mizoram.
After the meeting, Cachar Deputy Commissioner Keerthi Jalli and Superintendent of Police Bhanwar Lal Meena stated that the “National Highway 306 is open to traffic and there is no blockade”. Mizoram officials, too, confirmed that the traffic movement became smooth after the “economic blockade was fully lifted from Wednesday” evening.
In a press statement, Mizoram’s Kolasib district Deputy Commissioner H Lalthlanglian assured all drivers stranded at the interstate border that there was no reason to fear for their personal safety, or their goods and vehicles within the state of Mizoram.
Lalthangliana told PTI he made efforts along with the Cachar administration to convince the agitators and drivers to restart the vehicles. “Though there was no official meeting between us, we made collective efforts to convince them so that traffic movement between the two states resumed smoothly,” he added. “Trucks carrying essential commodities started entering Mizoram via Vairengte from Assam.”
The road blockade had added to the woes of people living along the states’ borders. In Aizawl, prices of vegetables and other essential commodities soared after the supplies were cut off. Mizoram Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs Minister K Lalrinliana said that the state government has been making efforts to bring in oil and cooking gas from Manipur and Tripura. He said five oil tankers and three trucks loaded with LPG cylinders have already arrived in the state from Manipur.
Zoram People’s Movement asks government to convene all party meeting
Mizoram’s main opposition party, the Zoram People’s Movement, on Wednesday asked the state government to convene an all-party meeting to discuss the border dispute with Assam.
ZPM vice president K Sapdanga alleged that the government was not paying “sincere attention” to defuse tensions between the states. He alleged that both the governments were trying to divert from the border issue by focussing on the economic blockade.
Sapdanga said that the Mizo National Front government headed by Chief Minister Zoramthanga should take “moral responsibility and find a solution to the present imbroglio as people are facing a livelihood crisis due to economic blockade launched by residents of Lailapur in Assam’s Cachar district”.
Assam-Mizoram tensions
Mizoram was carved out of Assam in 1972, when it became a separate Union Territory. In 1987, it became a full-fledged state. The three South Assam districts of Cachar, Hailakandi and Karimganj share a 164.6 kilometre-long border with Mizoram’s Kolasib, Mamit and Aizawl districts. The boundary between the two states is disputed at several points. Assam and Mizoram have often sparred over it, sometimes violently. Several rounds of dialogue, at various levels, since 1994 have failed to resolve the disagreement.
Tensions between the two states resumed in early October when the Assam government launched an “eviction drive” along a disputed part of the border, between Karimganj district and Mizoram’s Mamit district. A farm house and crops were reportedly burned down.
The Mizoram government responded by deploying forces in what Assam claims is its territory. The Mizos, for their part, insisted that they were only “defending their land”.
Meanwhile, violent clashes began on October 17 in another disputed area in the east at the Cachar-Kolasib section of the boundary. The two sides blamed each other for the violence that injured several people. The border dispute also assumed an ethnic tinge as Mizo civil society groups claimed that those behind the violence from Assam were “illegal migrants” from Bangladesh trying to take over Mizo land.
On October 21, the Mizoram government had agreed to pull back troops from the Assam border, where violent clashes had erupted on October 17 between the residents of the two states. In the midst of this, residents from both states blocked highways.
Tensions stirred again on November 3, after a 45-year old man from Assam’s Cachar district died in the custody of Mizoram Police. Two days later, the Centre deployed additional forces for Assam to maintain peace along the state’s borders with Mizoram.
On November 7, a school located along the states’ border was damaged in an explosion in Assam’s Cachar district. Both sides blamed each other for the attack.
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