‘Mizoram Police escalated issue’: Assam CM Sarma tweets video amid increasing tensions at border

The most recent incident of firing between personnel of the two states on Tuesday comes two days after Home Minister Amit Shah had met the chief ministers Assam and Mizoram for a closed-door discussion.

Amid escalating border tensions between the two northeastern states, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma Tuesday tweeted a purported video of Mizoram Police criticising their behaviour.

In the video, the police personnel can be seen relaxing on ground while one of them is smoking in the background. “Look at this video to know how personnel of Mizoram Police acted and escalated the issue,” Sarma tweeted, calling it “sad and horrific”.

His remarks come in the view of the deaths of at least five Assam Police personnel — Sub-Inspector Swapan Roy and constables Liton Suklabaidya, MH Barbhuyia, N Hussain and S Barbhuiya — during a violent clash with Mizoram Police, which also injured 50 other policemen.

Sarma had earlier condoled the deaths of the personnel and said there is “clear evidence” emerging which “unfortunately shows that Mizoram Police has used Light Machine Guns (LMG)” against Assam Police personnel. “This is sad, unfortunate and speaks volumes about the intention and gravity of the situation.”

Assam has accused Mizoram of encroaching its land at contested border sites. Earlier, a grenade was hurled on the team of Assam government officials by suspected miscreants from Mizoram at Dholakhal Khulicherra. While on July 11, two back-to-back explosions took place along the inter-state border on Mizoram side.

A criminal case under the Explosive Substances Act has been registered at the Vairengte police station in Mizoram. Whereas a senior Assam Police officer has claimed that on July 10 around 25-30 people from Mizoram came up to 25 metres ahead of Khulicherra CRPF camp, and later the crowd swelled to at least 50. They tried to encroach the land inside Assam, attempting to stop the forest track clearing work and prevent PWD officials from constructing a road, he said.

The most recent incident of firing between personnel of the two states on Tuesday comes two days after Home Minister Amit Shah had met the chief ministers Assam and Mizoram for a closed-door discussion on inter-state boundary issues plaguing the region.

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