Now tension on Assam-Nagaland border after 'anti-encroachment' stir

Different organisations, led by the Karbi Students Association (KSA), on Tuesday began an indefinite economic blockade on the highway to Nagaland in Assam's Karbi Anglong district over "encroachments" by the neighbouring state.

Karbi Anglong Superintendent of Police Debojit Deuri said that the agitators are holding demonstrations in three places along the Assam-Nagaland inter-state border but movement of all kinds of vehicles is normal and no untoward incident has been reported yet.

"Deputy Commissioners of bordering districts of both Assam and Nagaland held fruitful meetings on Tuesday and it was expected that the agitations would be called off soon," Deuri told IANS over phone.

The latest inter-state border row in the northeast states comes on the heels of over a month-long serious dispute, including a highway blockade, between Assam and Mizoram and a few weeks long border trouble between Tripura and Mizoram.

Another police official of Karbi Anglong district said that many agitators belonging to several organisations led by KSA blocked National Highway 39, a vital highway for Nagaland.

The KSA and the other organisations, including the United Karbi Anglong Women Association, are alleged that the Nagaland authorities have issued land right certificates to people in areas falling in the Daldali forest reserve under the Karbi Anglong Autonomous Council (KAAC) in Assam.


Assam government officials also claimed that border pillars demarcating the 512.1 km-long boundary between Assam and Nagaland have been destroyed by people from Nagaland in order to encroach Assam territory.

KSA President Bijoy Bey said that the encroachment of Assam's land has been going on for many years without any objection, but the state government has remained indifferent, forcing them to launch the indefinite agitations.

The influential, All Assam Students Union (AASU), had on Sunday threatened to block roads to Nagaland in protest against alleged encroachment of Assam's reserve forest land.

According to political observers, the Assam-Nagaland inter-state border dispute has been going on for over several decades. In between 1979 and 2014, there were many violent clashes over the border troubles, claiming many lives, mostly of those from Assam. - IANS