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Mizoram accused Assam of human rights violations, a charge denied by Guwahati which said that encroachment of its land was the crux of the border dispute between the two Northeastern states.
Mizoram’s Kolasib district Deputy Commissioner H Lalthlangliana shot a letter to Assam’s Cachar district administration, alleging human rights violation and atrocities on tribal people by Assam government officials and police during a border stand-off on July 10, an official in Aizawl said.
Copies of the letter were also sent to the National Human Rights Commission and National Commission for Scheduled Tribes, he said.
Reacting to it, Special Director-General of Assam Police GP Singh told PTI that whenever views are sought from the state by the NHRC and the NCST, the response shall be provided accordingly.
“The basic issue remains that encroachment of Assam land by Mizoram has happened. Subsequent to that, other issues are there. But the basic issue is encroachment,” he said.
“There is a Constitutional boundary demarcated for each state and they (Mizoram) have encroached into Assam. They have to work on that,” Singh added.
Earlier, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said in the assembly that people of neighbouring Mizoram have encroached on nearly 1,800 hectares of Assam land spread across three districts.
The chief minister’s statement came in the backdrop of tension between the two Northeastern states following alleged encroachment of land in Cachar district by the people of Mizoram.
In a written reply to a query by All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) MLA Suzam Uddin Laskar, Sarma said that a total of 1,777.58 hectares of land in Barak Valley region have been taken over by encroachers from Mizoram.
Out of this, the largest area of 1,000 hectares have been encroached in Hailakandi district, followed by 400 hectares in Cachar and 377.58 hectares in Karimganj, he added.
