Mizoram writes to Centre against Assam’s economic blockade after border clashes

The Mizoram government on Wednesday wrote to the Centre against residents of Assam blocking an important highway and other roads leading to its capital Aizawl.

Three districts in the south of Assam – Cachar, Hailakandi and Karimganj – share a 164.6-km-long border with Mizoram’s Kolasib, Mamit and Aizawl districts. Both states contest its demarcation and have often sparred over it, sometimes violently.

The indefinite blockade started after five Assam police officers were killed as clashes erupted along the state’s border with Mizoram on Monday. The police forces of both the states fired at each other. Residents of Lailapur village in Assam’s Cachar district also clashed with those near Vairengte in Mizoram’s Kolasib district.

In a letter to the Centre on Wednesday, Mizoram Home Secretary Lalbiaksangi said that National Highway 306 needs to be open for uninterrupted supply of essential commodities to the state.

“The blockade is affecting the livelihood of the people of Mizoram adversely,” he added. “Movement of vehicles along other routes connecting Mizoram and Assam have also been blocked inside Assam state.”

The home secretary said that National Highways are owned and managed by the central government, and therefore neither the state nor the public has any right to block them. Lalbiaksangi also pointed out that the Assam government had…

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