Home Secretary to meet Assam, Mizoram Chief Secretaries on border dispute

New Delhi, March 13 (IANS): Union Home Secretary Rajiv Gauba has called Chief Secretaries of Assam and Mizoram for a meeting here next week to resolve the ongoing border dispute between the two states.

The meeting will be held on March 20, following a letter written by Mizoram Chief Minister Pu Lal Thanhawla to Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Monday seeking his intervention in the dispute.

The dispute started on February 27-28 when Mizo Zirlai Pawl (MZP), a Mizo international student body, was constructing a rest house at the disputed site at Bairabi, a reserved forest area, between Assam’s Hailakandi in Assam and Mizoram’s Kolasib district.

The clashes then occurred on March 8 and 10 when a journalist was beaten up and a Mizo student injured in firing on a group by the Assam Police at Zopui, according to Mizoram. Assam Police however denied the charge and claimed that the protesters were only pushed back when they tried to intrude into their state.

Assam government claims the area as its own, said Joint Secretary, North East, Satyendra Garg.

Assam and Mizoram have a long-standing boundary dispute, and there had been tension in the Hailakandi-Kolasib region several times in the past too.