GUWAHATI: Tension surrounding the inter-state boundary dispute between Assam and Mizoram subsided with the resumption of vehicular traffic movement.
Official sources said the vehicles plied through the disputed belt with police escorts. The villagers in Assam’s Cachar district had enforced a blockade on a national highway leading up to Mizoram late last month.
The Assam government said there were signs of the return of normalcy.
“Some vehicles had moved yesterday (Monday) and some moved today (Tuesday). Efforts are being made to ensure the resumption of regular vehicular traffic movement. Normalcy is returning,” Assam’s Home Secretary GD Tripathi said.
The blockade, enforced by the Assam villagers demanding the withdrawal of Mizoram police personnel from areas they claimed were Assam land, had forced the Mizoram government to bring essential commodities via Tripura and Manipur.
Tripathi said the Mizoram government thinned their forces following talks with the Central government.
“There will be more withdrawal (of forces by Mizoram). It will happen with the passage of time. We are hoping that graded withdrawal will happen and it will, eventually, lead to complete withdrawal. The whole effort is to normalise the situation,” Tripathi added.
In the wake of heightened tension, Assam had deployed the personnel of Sashastra Seema Bal and Mizoram had deployed Border Security Force troops to the disputed areas.
The dispute had flared up mid-October when at least eight people from both states were injured and several houses and roadside shops torched.
Later, the miscreants had triggered blasts at two Assam government-run schools. A man from the state had also died under mysterious circumstances in the custody of Mizoram authorities. The Mizoram government claimed he was a drug peddler who died at a hospital but the Assam government alleged he was abducted by the miscreants from the border.