Assam – Mizoram Border Clash: Current Affairs Special Series

Team Adda247 and BankersAdda are here with a Current Affairs Special Series. In this series, candidates will be introduced to current affairs topics daily, which will not only improve their general awareness but also will ensure that the candidates do not lack in any current affairs topic. Today’s Current Affairs topic is Assam – Mizoram Border Clash.

Assam – Mizoram border clash

What happened in the clash?

According to officials, at least 5 Assam Police personnel were killed on duty while they were defending the “constitutional boundary” of the state with Mizoram. Around 60 people injured which includes an SP, as the suppurating border dispute between the two north-eastern states which were erupted into a bloody conflict on Monday (i.e. 26 July 2021). It was not clear which side fired first on Monday- each side accused the other one. 

Why did the incident happen?

Earlier on the day of the incident, Himanta Bisawa Sarma (Assam Chief Minister) and Zoramthanga (Mizoram Chief Minister) had sparred publicly on Twitter, accusing each other’s state of inciting trouble.

This war of words attained Amit Shah Step in. According to some official sources Amit shah spoke to the two chief ministers and exhorted them to immediately bring an end to the violence and check-in “miscreants” on either side of the border. Even official sources from these two CMs said that they assured Amit Shah that they would be restored and the border dispute resolved through discussions.  

The firing incident has happened after the two days of meeting between the Home Minister, Amit Shah and Chief Ministers of North-East states for a closed-door discussion on inter-state boundary issues plaguing the region. 

Background of this situation:

A tense eyeball-to-eyeball situation was predominated at the Assam-Mizoram border along with the Cachar-Kolasib districts, with security personnel of both states deployed at the border. 

In October 2020, when the tension had sprung up with two sides accusing each other of encroaching territory, the Centre had interposed and paramilitary forces have stationed either side of the border at Lailapur-Vairengte on the National Highway. 

History of a dispute between the two states:

The dispute had roots from a notification of 1875 that altered the Lushai Hills from the plains of Cachar and another notification of 1933, which delimitates a boundary between the Lushai Hills and Manipur. 

According to Mizoram leaders, the boundary should be demarked on the basis of the 1875 notification which comes from the Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation (BEFR) Act, 1873. They also contended in the past against the demarked notified in 1933 because they were not consulted. This is the main point of conflict between these two border sharing states.