Assam-Mizoram border dispute explained in 10 points

Tensions have been building between the two states since last month over the 164 km long-running border.

Six Assam Police personnel were killed and over 50 others were injured as Assam and Mizoram policemen allegedly fired at each other on Monday in an escalation of a border dispute between the two states.

Here’s all you need to know:

1. The 150-year-old Assam-Mizoram dispute got so violent now.

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2. Firing on the inter-state boundary on Monday left six Assam policemen dead and over 50 individuals injured. The chief ministers from both sides and other officials have accused each other of provoking violence.

3. Tensions have been building between the two states since last month over the 164 km long-running border.

What is the problem?

4. The clashes originate from a land dispute between Assam and Mizoram over “improper demarcation of the state border”. Two border notifications were issued during British rule.

5. The first clash broke out in 1994

6. Both Assam and Mizoram claim land on the border between Assam’s Cachar and Mizoram’s Kolasib district. Both states accuse each other of encroaching on their land.

7. Mizoram was earlier a district of Assam and known as Lushai Hills. It became a Union Territory in 1972. Later, it became a state in 1987.

8. Tensions escalated in October 2020 when residents of Assam and Mizoram clashed twice a week. Angry residents torched huts and small shops on both sides. At least eight people were injured.

What happened on Monday?

9. Clashes erupted between police on either side of a border point, Lailapur. It was a sudden escalation of a border dispute between the two states. While officials of Assam say that their policemen were killed by Mizoram forces “while defending the constitutional boundary” and government officials were attacked with stones, authorities in Mizoram denied this.

10. Following the intervention of Union Home Minister Amit Shah, both sides have now retracted their forces.

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