Stones pelted at Assam Congress team near Mizoram border

Miscreants from throughout the Assam-Mizoram border allegedly used slingshots to assault an Assam Congress team with stones and marbles when it visited a flashpoint on Sunday.

The governments and folks of the 2 north-eastern States have been caught in a border row for a month with a short lull in hostilities in between. The two States share a 146.6 km border.

The Congress delegation mentioned the Mizoram police had erected barricades near a bridge about 3 km inside Assam and used aggressive locals to forestall the members from advancing additional.

“We had intimated the Assam government in writing about our visit but the Mizoram police prevented us from reaching the trouble spots. The Mizos also pelted stones and marbles at us and the Assam police personnel,” mentioned All India Mahila Congress president Sushmita Dev, a former MP from southern Assam’s Barak Valley that borders Mizoram.

She criticised Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal and Finance Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma for failing to resolve the border drawback regardless of Union Home Minister Amit Shah holding talks with each States.

Assam’s Opposition chief Debabrata Saikia, who accompanied Ms. Dev, mentioned the “aggression” by folks of Mizoram was inside Assam.

“Mizo villagers joined their State police in preventing us from advancing. They pelted stones at us with slingshots and shouted slogans,” he mentioned, including that Mizoram occupied giant swathes of Assam’s land whereas the Bharatiya Janata Party-led State authorities turned a blind eye.

Officials in Assam’s Cachar district mentioned many from Mizoram wielded firearms when a team went to examine a college near the border that was bombed on Friday evening. They mentioned the Mizoram residents stored pointing their weapons at them as they inspected the location.

In Mizoram’s capital, Aizawl, Chief Secretary Lalnunmawia Chuaungo mentioned three corporations of the Border Security Force would quickly change the Mizoram police at three flashpoints and vehicles stranded within the State can be launched as quickly as Assam calls off the financial blockade since in pressure since October 28.

“The boundary dispute can only be resolved through dialogue,” he mentioned, regretting the demise of an Assamese man, 48-year-old Intiaz Ali Laskar, on November 1 whereas in custody of the Mizoram police and blasts at two colleges, which he mentioned have been in Kolasib district of Mizoram. Assam claims the colleges are in Cachar district.

Mizoram has contested the boundary because it was carved out of Assam as a Union Territory in 1972 and have become a State in 1987. Several rounds of talks since 1994 have been inconclusive.