Border row: Assam Police sends team to grill Mizoram MP who threatened to 'kill them all'

Throwing caution to the wind, Member of Parliament from Rajya Sabha K Vanlalvena issued an open challenge to the Assam police, whom he accused of entering Mizoram, and pushing back its police force. The MP who belongs to the Mizo National Front party, that is part of the National Democratic Alliance, has alleged that the Assam police gave firing orders first, in reaction to which the Mizoram police fired, and added that the former were 'lucky' that they were not killed. He, however, added that they (Assam police) would 'all be killed' if they tried to re-enter the Mizoram territory. This comes in the backdrop of unprecedented violence that broke out between the police forces of the two states over a 150-year-old border dispute.   

Standing outside the Parliament House, Vanlalvena, told reporters: "More than 200 policemen entered our territory and they pushed back our policemen from our own posts and they gave firing orders first, before we fired. They are lucky that we didn't kill them all. If they come again, we shall kill them all."

Assam Police reacts

The statement of the MP did not go unnoticed by the Assam Police. Taking to microblogging site Twitter, Special DGP of the state GP Singh informed that a case has been registered in relation to the killing of Assam Police personnel at Inner Line Reserve Forest area of Cachar district, Assam along National Highway 306 on July 26, 2021. "Assam Police has prepared a picture gallery which is being further updated of Mizoram Police personnel and civilian miscreants who fired at the Assam Police," he wrote and added that they 'would be brought to law'.

Moving on to address the statement of Vanlalvena, he added that a team including officers of CID are leaving for Delhi to question the Mizoram Rajya Sabha MP, who they alleged was active in the 'conspiracy' against the Assam Police. 

The trigger for the present row, as per Assam, was Mizoram breaching the existing status quo by commencing the construction of a road towards Rengti Basti, thus "destroying" the Inner Line Forest Reserve in the Lailapur area besides building an armed camp in the same vicinity. Assam claimed that the Mizoram Police opened fire on its officials and civilians with automatic weapons including LMGs which resulted in the death of six police officials and left over 50 persons injured. On the contrary, Mizoram claimed that its police personnel fired at their Assam counterparts only after the latter launched tear gas grenades at them.

Subsequently, Union Home Minister Amit Shah spoke to Assam CM Sarma and Mizoram CM Zoramthanga who agreed to withdraw their police forces from the site. 

History of Assam-Mizoram dispute

It is pertinent to mention here that the Assam-Mizoram border dispute dates back to the 19th century when the country was under British rule. The Britishers had demarcated the boundary between Lushai Hills (As Mizoram was known at that time, and the Kachar Hills (in Assam), and had informed the same through a notification called the Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation (BEFR) of 1873. 

While BEFR was lifted in Assam and other Northeast states, it continued to be in force in Mizoram, which backed it with the Inner Line of the Lushai Hills Notification of 1993. This led to the dispute; and several attempts were made to resolve it, particularly after 1995, but in vain.