Assam urges its residents to avoid travel to Mizoram
GUWAHATI: Assam issued an advisory on Thursday on travelling to Mizoram as tensions between the northeastern neighbours continued to simmer three days after a fierce gunbattle at a disputed border killed seven people and injured 41 others.
Assam asked its residents not to travel to Mizoram due to safety concerns and asked those already in the state to exercise caution. The unprecedented advisory came on a day a state minister upped the pitch against Mizoram, which alleged that the larger state had imposed an informal economic blockade by refusing to let goods pass through.
“Given the critical prevailing situation, the people of Assam are advised not to travel to Mizoram as any threat to personal safety of people of Assam cannot be accepted,” said the advisory issued by MS Manivannan, commissioner and secretary in the home and political department.
The advisory, which was brought into force with immediate effect, urged the people of Assam staying in Mizoram “due to work-related compulsion” to exercise “utmost caution”.
“Certain Mizo civil society, students and youth organizations are constantly issuing provocative statements against the state of Assam and its people,” the advisory read. “In view of the above and with the purpose of ensuring safety and security, a travel advisory is hereby issued to all people of Assam,” it added.
The police forces of the two states fought a pitched gun battle at a disputed border in southern Assam on July 26, in which six Assam policemen died. Assam claimed Mizoram police opened fire on its forces who objected to a road being constructed by Mizoram on a patch of forested land it claims. Mizoram claimed the land belongs to it. Both states maintain that it was police personnel from the other side which started the shootings.
The clashes led some residents on the Assam side to block some sections of NH 306, disrupting transportation to the neighbouring state.
On Wednesday at a meeting called by Union home secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla, the two sides agreed to withdraw their police forces in the four-km disputed stretch which runs between Vairengte in Mizoram and Lailapur in Assam along NH-306. They also agreed to the deployment of central paramilitary troops in the area till a permanent solution is found. But tensions refused to die down. “We have always wanted to solve the matter by dialogues. But we cannot talk about peace over six dead bodies of our officials,” said Assam urban development minister Ashok Singhal who visited Lailapur border area.