Border raid: Nagaland villagers detain Assam cops over 'confusion'
GUWAHATI: The members of the Assam police were allegedly detained for several hours by the locals of Yajang village in the Mokokchung district.
The team had inadvertently crossed the inter-state border during an operation carried out on Tuesday night. The cops were on duty to catch a car lifter.
Jorhat Superintendent of Police Shwetank Mishra termed the incident as a 'confusion'.
“There was a confusion. When their (police) identities were established, the villagers were pacified,” the SP said. He also added that a cop was injured during the commotion.
His Mokokchung counterpart Vesupra Kezo told TNIE that the villagers were scared on seeing the armed and unknown people in civils at an odd hour.
"It caused a lot of alarm and commotion", he also said.
“When the Assam police personnel entered Nagaland, they were supposed to inform us and the border magistrate beforehand. However, no information was provided to us. The Yajang village authorities had contacted us to seek information about the persons. We said that we were not aware as Nagaland police were not informed at all,” Kezo said.
“They were called to the residence of the village council chairman and questioned. They were released when it was established that they are Assam police personnel,” the SP added.
He said he had learnt about the identities of the persons only after talking to the Jorhat SP.
“I immediately intervened. A police force deployed nearby was sent to the village to contain the situation. The villagers suspected the Assam cops to be members of an extremist group and were scared. Everything was sorted out last night itself,” Kezo said.
He added that a few Assam police personnel were released on Tuesday night and the others were released on Wednesday morning.
Parts of the Jorhat-Mokokchung interstate district border are disputed and hence, considered sensitive. Several incidents of border skirmishes were reported in the past.