Union home secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla held a meeting with chief secretaries and DGPs of Assam and Mizoram in Delhi on Friday to resolve the fresh round of border skirmishes between the neighbouring states.
Mizoram chief secretary Lalnunmawia Chuaungo and his Assam counterpart Jishnu Baruah attended the meeting and apprised the MHA about the prevailing situation and what led to the fresh tension, sources said, adding two rounds of meetings were held — first between both the states and then between MHA and both states.
Assam chief secretary Jishnu Baruah told The Telegraph from Delhi that the discussions lasted nearly five hours and that a “tentative understanding” has been reached wherein both sides would revert to their “respective pre-Covid border position (April 2020)” . Further consultations will be held to work out the details, Baruah said.
However, a Mizoram government statement said the “points of discussions” of Friday’s meeting to be submitted to “higher authorities” of both states. “The situation is under control along the border,” an official said.
Mizoram was part of Assam till 1972. Efforts for a breakthrough since 1995 to resolve the border dispute have not made much progress.
The fresh round of skirmishes between the two states started late last month along the Kolasib (Mizoram)-Hailakandi (Assam) inter-state border but escalated around July 2-3 after Mizoram police accused their Assam counterparts of entering their territory, clearing banana plantations and dismantling two of the three camps set up by them.
Both sides had mutually agreed to set up camps in the Kolasib-Hailakandi border to keep an eye on encroachment in the area claimed by both states. The inter-state border is about 164.6km long. Three districts of Mizoram — Aizawl, Kolasib and Mamit — share borders with south Assam’s Cachar, Hailakandi and Karimganj districts.
Bhalla has been handling the border skirmishes between the two states which has become frequent since August last year, triggered first by a row in Karimganj which then spread to Cachar. The fresh round of tension involves Hailakandi and Kolasib districts.
Hailakandi locals allege people from Mizoram have entered and occupied at least 10 km of Assam’s territory while Mizoram locals say 2.5 km of their land has been encroached by people from Assam.
