Tension on 2 inter-state borders in NE; shops, houses burnt

By Sujit Chakraborty Silchar (Assam)/Aizawl/Agartala, Oct 18 : The situation on the Assam-Mizoram border took an ugly turn in the past 48 hours with many shops and houses burnt and over 50 people injured, officials said on Sunday.
Security was also beefed up along Tripura-Mizoram border and prohibitory orders promulgated, even as the Tripura authorities stopped reconstruction of a temple at the disputed Phuldungsei village on the inter-state border.
On the Assam-Mizoram border tension, Deputy Inspector General of Police, Southern Assam, Dilip Kumar Dey said that Cachar district police have approached their Mizoram counterparts in a bid to dispel the problem and prevent clashes between people from both sides.
Explaining the cause, Dey, talking to IANS over phone, said that a Covid-19 testing centre was set up at Mizoram government at Lailapur, 1.5 km into Assamese territory, on Friday, to test samples of Mizoram-bound truckers and other people.
“The testing centre was set up unilaterally and under the pressure of Mizoram’s NGOs,” he said, adding that the Cachar police had strongly objected to setting-up of the centre without permission of the Assam government.
Following this, some youths from Mizoram came to Lailapur on Saturday and attacked the truck drivers, villagers and burnt more than 15 small shops-cum-houses, the DIG said.