Zoram News
Jul 29, 2021: When the first shot was fired on Monday, Vanlalfaka Ralte said he was on the other side of the border in Assam.
“I was negotiating with the Assam IG,” Ralte, SP of Kolasib, one of three Mizoram districts that border Assam, told TOI on Wednesday. He was handling the territory dispute discussions from the Mizoram side. “I was telling him we should settle things peacefully. Suddenly, a shot went off from the Assam side. Since I was on the Assam side, there was no way my men could have fired first. But when they came under fire, they replied. That is what happened.”
Six Assam cops died in the firing and about 80 others were injured at the border between Vairengte in Mizoram and Lailapur in Assam that day. The area had been witnessing sporadic clashes, the last in October last year. At the end of June this year, Mizoram said Assam was encroaching on its territory in Vairengte and set up a police check post there.
On Monday, that was where the conflict began. “From the other side, more than 200 Assam police personnel came to our police camp in Vairengte. We had only 20 men there. The Assam cops overpowered them, pushed them out and occupied our camp,” Ralte said.
Ralte did not say if it was Mizoram police firing which killed the Assam cops.
~TOI
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