GUWAHATI: Fresh tension on the Assam-Mizoram border eased on Sunday after Assam’s Hailakandi district administration had returned seized construction materials to Mizoram’s Kolasib administration.
Trouble was brewing on the interstate border since Friday after the Assam Police personnel had stopped Mizoram’s construction of a bridge and seizure of construction materials (TMT bars).
The incident had made the Mizoram Police file a case of theft against the Assam Police. Mizoram claimed the site of construction falls in Bairabi area of Kolasib district. Assam claimed it is Kachurtal in Hailakandi district.
Mizoram’s Kolasib District Magistrate H Lalthlangliana confirmed the construction materials were returned by the Hailakandi district administration.
“Hailakandi DM returned all construction materials, taken away by Assam Police on Friday, at 6 pm today (Sunday),” Lalthlangliana said.
He said the case registered against the Assam Police would be withdrawn.
“They had come to our side and taken away about five quintals of rod in a pickup vehicle from a place where a bridge is being constructed to connect the paddy fields of our first Chief Minister, C Chhunga with the main road,” the DM said.
Kolasib Superintendent of Police Vanlalfaka Ralte said Mizoram had withdrawn the cops from the site following the return of construction materials by Assam.
During his telephonic conversations with Hailakandi DM Rohan Jha earlier in the day, Lalthlangliana had stressed on the withdrawal of the Assam police personnel and the return of the materials.
Hailakandi SP Gaurav Upadhyay said when some Mizoram workers were found trying to build a bridge at Kachurtal on the Assam side of the border on Friday, the Assam Police personnel rushed to the area and stopped the construction work.
The incident comes less than a month after the July 26 violence on the interstate border in which six Assam police personnel were killed and scores of others, including an SP, were injured.