Assam Mizoram border skirmishes: CM Zoramthanga directs police to withdraw FIRs against all Assam officials

Mizoram chief minister Zoramthanga directed his police force on Monday to withdraw a first information report (FIR) that named Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and his six top officials over the deadly border violence on 26 July, dialing down unprecedented tensions and hostilities between the neighbouring states. He tweeted:

In order to build a conducive atmosphere for amicable solution to the #MizoramAssamBorder dispute & to reduce the plight of suffering citizens,I have directed @mizorampolice to withdraw FIR dt. 26.07.2021 filed at Vairengte,Kolasib District,Mizoram against all the accused persons pic.twitter.com/IlQ65jssIL

— Zoramthanga (@ZoramthangaCM) August 2, 2021

Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, four senior officials of Assam Police and two administrative officials were booked for an attempt to murder and criminal conspiracy, among other charges, in the FIR filed at Vairengte in Kolasib district, where the police forces of Assam and Mizoram faced off on 26 July. Six Assam Police personnel were killed in the ensuing firing, in an ugly culmination of a festering border dispute between the northeastern neighbours. According to reports, Sarma was not summoned by the Mizoram Police, but the other six officers were. Zoramthanga’s tweet made it clear that there will be no further action on the matter, as the two CMs scrambled to cool tempers at the border. Earlier on Monday, Sarma said he ordered his police to withdraw an FIR that Sarma filed against Mizoram MP K Vanlalvena over his alleged statement threatening to kill more personnel if they cross over to Mizoram. Sarma, however, said police cases against six Mizoram government officials will continue to be investigated for their alleged role in the deadly gunfight along the border at Lailapur in Assam’s Cachar district. In a series of tweets, Sarma also lauded the efforts of Zoramthanga to settle the border dispute that stems from the two states’ different perceptions of the interstate boundary. In Delhi, a group of BJP MPs from four northeastern states met Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the recent border skirmishes between Assam and Mizoram, alleged that foreign forces were fuelling fire in the region, and accused the opposition Congress of “politicising” the sensitive issue. Union ministers Kiren Rijiju and Sarbananda Sonowal, along with BJP MPs from Assam, Manipur, Tripura and Arunachal Pradesh, met Modi in Parliament House. The MPs also gave him a four-page memorandum. The two states share a 164.6-km border between Assam’s Cachar, Hailakandi and Karimganj districts, and Mizoram’s Kolasib, Mamit and Aizawl districts. Both states blame each other for the unprecedented violence that erupted on 26 July at the controversial point between Cachar (Assam) and Kolasib (Mizoram). Assam says there’s more to the recent flare-up than the border dispute. The state maintains Assam’s crackdown on narcotics has unnerved drug lords, who it says are politically connected in Mizoram. According to Assam, the drug cartel is fomenting trouble in border areas and could be behind the gathering of mobs at the disputed point on the day of firing. It says a drug smuggling route cuts through a reserved forest at the Cachar-Kolasib border, stressing that it has adopted a zero-tolerance policy against the cartels. Mizoram says a 200-member Assam Police team entered its land on the day of the incident and showed aggression, forcing Mizoram Police to fire back. With inputs from PTI