Assam, Mizoram to pull back forces; CRPF to guard stretch

Assam and Mizoram, which clashed over a border dispute on July 26, will withdraw their police forces and central paramilitary troops will be deployed in the four-km disputed stretch, which will function as a sort of no man’s land, till a permanent solution is found, according to an interim agreement reached by both states during talks held in Delhi.

The decision was taken at a meeting called by Union home secretary Ajay Bhalla on Wednesday to mediate between the sparring states, people familiar with the development said.

The police forces of the two states fought a pitched gun battle in southern Assam on July 26, in which six Assam policemen and a civilian died. Assam claimed Mizoram police opened fire on Assam’s forces who objected to a road being constructed by Mizoram on a patch of forested land it claims. Mizoram claims the land belongs to it.

Wednesday’s meeting was attended by Assam chief secretary Jishnu Baruah and director-general of police Bhaskar Jyoti Mahanta and their Mizoram counterparts Lalnunmawia Chuaungo and SBK Singh, apart from the director-general of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), Kuldiep Singh.

The four-km stretch on which central forces will be deployed runs between Vairengte on the Mizoram side and Lailapur in south Assam, along National Highway 306.

Both states decided to withdraw their police personnel from the stretch and “agreed to continue discussions mutually to resolve the border issue in an amicable manner”, an MHA officer said.

Barua told reporters after the meeting that “paramilitary forces will take overVairengte border. The process of withdrawal of state police is being worked out”.

Mizoram officials, in the meeting, admitted to opening fire on Assam policemen and “offered their condolences”, but insisted Assam police breached the borders, according to a second official aware of the development.

Chuanungo said the situation was currently peaceful at the border. “We will try to maintain peace. There is no point indulging in violence. (Our) forces are being withdrawn from the area”.

MHA officials said they would continue to facilitate talks and monitor the ground situation.

The CRPF already has five companies (around 500 personnel) deployed there while two more companies are on standby. This will be a rare instance where it functions as a border force; it will also be a rare instance where a patch of no man’s land has been created, albeit temporarily, within the country.

Assam and Mizoram were talking through their chief secretaries in a Centre-chaperoned dialogue process to douse interstate border tensions before police forces of the two northeastern states fatally clashed on July 26, shocking the country.

One round of talks in the national capital was held on July 8, a third official aware of the development said. Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, too, told the media on Tuesday, while putting out his version of the dispute, that the talks failed at the final stage of a proposed memorandum of understanding.

The official cited above said the talks between the two sides were focussed on some kind of “status quo ante”, which refers to a return to earlier positions. The process failed because differences persisted over what should be the point of the status quo ante, the person said.

Assam proposed a satellite-based mapping of the disputed interstate border, a proposal that found its way into a draft memorandum of understanding, while Mizoram proposed chief secretary-level talks monitored by the Centre.

“My proposal to him (Mizoram chief minister Zoramthanga) was that we will carry out satellite photography of the borders. In the talks, Assam said that whatever is the status quo situation, be that on May 10 or six months ago or as on date, we should maintain status quo on the border as determined through satellite mapping,” Sarma said in one of his several media briefings on Tuesday.

The border dispute has its roots in how Assam was carved up to form other states in the region. Mizoram, which became a state 1987, was once part of Assam. Specifically, the contested area is claimed by Mizoram on the basis of a 1875 demarcation by the British, while Assam claims it on the basis of a 1933 one, also by the British.

In his version of the events, Assam chief minister Sarma said the draft memorandum of understanding would have gone through had Mizoram agreed to sign off on it.

The Mizoram government has claimed that Assam has blocked National Highway 306 and other roads connecting the state with other parts of the country to cut off supplies.

In a letter to union home secretary Ajay Bhalla on Wednesday, Mizoram also accused “unknown miscreants” from Assam of destroying railway tracks and lines at Mohammedpur and Ramnathpur railway stations in Hailakandi district of Assam, due to which only railway line connecting Bairabi railway station in Mizoram has been blocked.

“Assam has been indulging in the practice of imposing economic blockade merely because of the fact that main supply routes i.e. national highway and railways are passing through the state,” the letter, written by Mizoram’s home department Secretary Lalbiaksangi, stated.

It sought Centre’s intervention in immediate removal of blockade by Assam as it was “affecting the livelihood of the people of Mizoram adversely”.