Home Minister trying to find solution to tensions between Assam & Mizoram: K Hari Babu

Mizoram Governor K Hari Babu said that the Home Minister is trying to defuse the tension and he is trying to find a possible solution to the issues between Assam and Mizoram.

New Delhi: Amid tensions between Assam and Mizoram over the recent border clash, Mizoram Governor K Hari Babu met Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday and said the Centre is trying to find a solution to the issue. Meanwhile, BJP MPs from Assam, including Union Minister Sarbananda Sonowal, are also meeting the prime minister in the afternoon. Babu is scheduled to meet Home Minister Amit Shah later in the afternoon.

Talking to reporters in Parliament after meeting the Prime Minister, Babu said the incident was "very unfortunate". "The Home Minister is trying to defuse the tension and he is trying to find the solution. Both chief ministers (of Assam and Mizoram) have committed that peace will be restored," he said.

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At least six Assam Police personnel and one civilian were killed and more than 50 people injured, including the police chief of the district of Cachar, in a fire-fight between the police of the two states on a disputed stretch of their boundary, near Dholai in Cachar district on July 25.

Tension along the border with Mizoram in Cachar and Hailakandi districts of Assam have been escalating since October 2020 with frequent incidents of burning of houses and encroachment of land. The two states share a 164.6-km border between Assam's Cachar, Hailakandi and Karimganj districts, and Mizoram's Kolasib, Mamit and Aizawl districts.

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Both states have differing interpretations of their territorial border. While Mizoram believes that its border lies along an inner line' drawn up in 1875 to protect tribals from outside influence, Assam goes by a district demarcation done in the 1930s.

PTI

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