Assam-Mizoram border dispute

Context:

• At least five Assam Police personnel were killed after the old boundary dispute between Assam and Mizoram exploded in violent clashes at a contested border point.
• The violence spotlights the long-standing inter-state boundary issues in the Northeast, particularly between Assam and the states that were carved out of it.

What led to the violence and clashes?

• According to an agreement between governments of Assam and Mizoram some years ago, status quo should be maintained in no man’s land in the border area.
• However, people from Lailapur broke the status quo and allegedly constructed some temporary huts. People from Mizoram side went and set fire on them.

• Mizoram’s civil society groups blame “illegal Bangladeshis” (alleged migrants from Bangladesh) on the Assam side creating all this trouble.

What is the genesis of the boundary dispute?

• In the Northeast’s complex boundary equations, showdowns between Assam and Mizoram residents are less frequent than they are between Assam and Nagaland residents.
• The boundary between present-day Assam and Mizoram, 165 km long dates back to the colonial era, when Mizoram was known as Lushai Hills, a district of Assam.
• The dispute stems from a notification of 1875 that differentiated the Lushai Hills from the plains of Cachar, and another of 1933, that demarcates a boundary between the Lushai Hills and Manipur.
• Mizoram believes the boundary should be demarcated on the basis of the 1875 notification, which is derived from the Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation (BEFR) Act, 1873.
• In Demarcation notified in 1933, Mizo society was not consulted and the Assam government follows the 1933 demarcation, and that is the point of conflict.

About Mizoram:

• Mizoram is a state in northeastern India, with Aizawl as its seat of government and capital city.
• It is the southernmost landlocked state, sharing borders with three of the Seven Sister States of old Assam, namely Tripura, Assam and Manipur.
• The state also shares a 722-kilometre (449 mi) border with the neighbouring countries of Bangladesh and Myanmar.

https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/assam-mizoram-border-dispute-notifications-7423681/