Mizoram builds bridge on Assam territory, violates joint statement of peace claims Assam police

GUWAHATI: The Assam police on Sunday stated that few Mizoram workers were trying to build a bridge in Kachurtal that falls inside the territory of Assam along Hailakandi- Mizoram border.

"On Friday, when few Mizoram workers were trying to build a bridge in Kachurtal, the Officer-in-Charge of Ramnathpur Police Station and his patrolling team immediately reached the spot and stopped the construction work. He called it a trespass by Mizoram as Mizoram had no authority to build a bridge on Assam side,” said Gaurav Upadhyay, Superintendent of Police of Hailakandi district.

On Saturday, around 40-50 Mizo security forces reached the bridge and some of them also came towards the Assam side of the bridge, he said.

Assam police have claimed that the Mizoram security forces have violated the joint statement issued by both states on 5th August to maintain peace in the border areas.

“Moreover, when they were asked by local policemen to leave Assam land, in an act of brazen belligerence they refused to do so,” he said.

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In order to assert the position of Assam and to ask Mizoram forces to retreat from the Assam side of the bridge, a party of around 200 Assam Police personnel and Commandos under the leadership of SP Hailakandi and other senior officials reached Kachurtal.

The Assam police said that that it has given the respective civil administration a chance to amicably resolve the matter by stopping the construction on the unauthorized bridge and removal of Mizoram forces.

Gaurav Upadhyay has also claimed that the complaint by the Mizoram administration of theft of construction materials by Assam police is ‘concocted’, ‘baseless’ and ‘malafide’.

According to Mizoram authorities, policemen from Hailakanadi district entered the Mizoram side of the interstate border on Friday and stole construction material. A case in this regard was lodged on Saturday at Bairabi police station in the Kolasib district of Mizoram.

In a letter to his Hailakandi counterpart Rohan Kumar Jha on Saturday, Kolasib deputy commissioner Dr H Lalthlangliana alleged that on Friday noon, a team of Assam policemen entered Mizoram’s territory in Zophai where a bridge was under construction to connect the main road to the paddy field of C Chhunga, the first chief minister of Mizoram.

Refuting the claim, Gaurav Upadhyay said that the bridge which Mizoram is referring to is constructed inside the territory of Assam.

“The allegation of any theft by a disciplined force like Assam Police is absolutely concocted, baseless, malafide and devoid of any facts and is an attempt by Mizoram administration to divert the attention from the main issue, that is illegal construction by Mizoram authorities on Assam soil,” he said.

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