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Assam-Mizoram border situation under control

By Staff Correspondent

SILCHAR, Oct 18 - The tense situation along the Assam-Mizoram inter-state border at Lailapur following a flare-up on Saturday night is now under control, Cachar district administration sources said on Sunday.

State Environment and Forest Minister Parimal Suklabaidya on Sunday visited Lailapur, where some houses and stalls were torched by miscreants on Saturday night. The minister interacted with the local people to defuse the tension.

Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal on Sunday apprised the Prime Minister�s Office and Union Home Ministry about the situation over phone. He also telephoned his Mizoram counterpart Zoramthanga and talked to him about the incident.

Suklabaidya, who rushed to the site on the instruction of the Chief Minister, said �the incident was the handiwork of miscreants to create disturbance in society�.

Assuring the locals of safety and security, Suklabaidya said he would place their demands of a police outpost and other security issues in front of the higher authorities.

He appealed to the people to remain calm and help maintain peace and tranquillity along the border.

Later, on social media, the minister said that a high-level inquiry into the incident has been ordered under the directions of the Cachar Deputy Commissioner and Superintendent of Police.

DC Keerthi Jalli visited the spot to defuse tension and instil a sense of security among the locals. Commissioner and Secretary (Home and Political) Gyanendra Dev Tripathi, DIG (Southern Range) Dilip Kumar Dey, SP Bhanwar Lal Meena, ADC Rajib Roy and Sonai Circle Officer Sudeep Nath also visited the area.

PTI adds: Meanwhile, the Mizoram government has deployed India Reserve Battalion personnel in the violence-hit areas near Vairengte village in Mizoram�s Kolasib district and Assam�s Lailapur.

Kolasib DC H Lalthlangliana said that a large number of Vairengte residents assembled when some people from Assam, armed with sticks and daos, pelted stones at a group near the autorickshaw stand on the outskirts of the border village on Saturday evening. The irate mob from Vairengte retaliated and set on fire about 20 temporary bamboo huts and stalls built along the National Highway 306 (formerly 54) by residents of Lailapur despite a prohibitory order under Section 144 of the CrPC being in place.

In the clash that lasted for several hours, many people including four from Mizoram, were injured, Lalthlangliana said. He added that no one died in the clash and one person from Assam was admitted at Silchar Medical College and Hospital.

He said the incident could be the fallout of the demolition on Saturday afternoon of a makeshift hut used by local volunteers who guard the inter-state border near the Saihaipui 5 village, about 3 km from Vairengte. The volunteers are guarding the border to check movement in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

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