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Tension for 2nd consecutive day after Meghalaya cops and civilians enter Assam
Meghalaya’s additional district magistrate (ADM) of Ri Bhoi district said the first group of policemen and Meghalaya residents, who entered Assam on Wednesday, meant to express solidarity with Assam residents but their visit was mistaken as intimidatory
There was fresh tension at a border point between Assam and Meghalaya on Wednesday after policemen and civilians from Meghalaya entered the Assam side.
On Tuesday, a group of people from Meghalaya had allegedly damaged a police post at Umlapher area of Assam’s West Karbi Anglong district in retaliation against Assam police’s alleged misbehaviour with a Meghalaya resident at a border checkpoint on Monday night.
“The situation had returned to normal on Tuesday after I had a talk with my counterpart in Ri Bhoi district of Meghalaya. But on Wednesday morning, some Meghalaya policemen accompanied by around 150 civilians entered Assam seeking a meeting on Tuesday’s incident,” said Ajagwran Basumatary, superintendent of police, West Karbi Anglong.
“This led to civilians from Assam also gathering at the place. The situation was brought under control after our police and civilians managed to send the Meghalaya policemen and residents back,” he added.
Basumatary said that tension flared up again after a few hours, when the deputy superintendent of police of Meghalaya’s Ri Bhoi district entered nearly 15 km inside Assam’s territory along with his security personnel, without any intimation to authorities in West Karbi Anglong district.
“We had no information and [we] don’t know why he turned up after the situation was brought under control earlier in the day. The Meghalaya police vehicles were intercepted by civilians on the Assam side and there was some pushing and heckling between both groups,” said Basumatary.
He said the police team from Meghalaya was finally escorted back to the interstate border by Assam Police personnel. “We have deployed some extra personnel at the site and the additional superintendent of police is present there,” he added.
Ri-Bhoi additional district magistrate (ADM) MB Tongper said that the first group of policemen and Meghalaya residents, who entered Assam on Wednesday, meant to express solidarity with Assam residents but their visit was mistaken as intimidatory.
“Since yesterday we had agreed on joint patrolling and hence the officer with his team was present, which probably raised tension as residents thought police were accompanying the visitors and it resulted in an altercation,” Tongper claimed that at least one Meghalaya cop was manhandled by someone in the crowd.
The ADM accepted that while the intention of the visiting group was welcome, their timing was wrong, especially since no prior information was intimated to the Assam administration about this move.
Ri-Bhoi deputy commissioner Rosetta M Kurbah said, “The incident could have been averted had people from our side not attempted to visit Umlapher on Wednesday. Luckily better sense prevailed.”
Kurbah said she and her Karbi Anglong counterpart will meet on September 1. “Since Tuesday, we both have agreed to maintain the status quo and ensure no untoward incident takes place in our respective territories. The fact that my ADM reached the spot swiftly and contained the situation was because he was already on a tour of the area,” she said.
Meghalaya was carved out of Assam in 1972, but both states have a long-pending boundary dispute, especially over 12 border points.
Meghalaya doesn’t accept a 1951 Assam government notification which merged Block I and Block II of Jowai sub-division (which comprise 356 villages) with United Mikir and North Cachar Hills (now Karbi Anglong in Assam).
In a bid to resolve the border dispute, chief ministers of both states held two rounds of meetings in July and August at Shillong and Guwahati where they agreed to sort the issue in a phased manner, focusing first on 6 of the 12 areas of contention.
