GUWAHATI: Six persons were injured and several houses gutted by miscreants following clashes between residents of a “disputed” area along the Assam-Mizoram border, police sources said on Wednesday.
According to official sources, two groups were engaged in an altercation over the construction of a PMGSY road in the Jalnacherra-Kachurthal area on Tuesday afternoon leading to a clash between them.
A section from Mizoram’s Kolasib district, which shares a boundary with Assam’s Hailakandi district, had reportedly opposed the construction of the road.
Speaking to The Shillong Times on Wednesday, Hailakandi superintendent of police Pabindra Kumar Nath said that situation was under control even as some pressure groups staged a road blockade in the area in protest against the incident.
“Three persons from Assam were injured in the clash when some miscreants from Mizoram attacked them after the altercation over road construction. One of them suffered mild injuries and was discharged from Katlicherra PHC. The other two were referred to Hailakandi Civil Hospital,” Nath said.
The SP said that in retaliation, a section of people attacked the residence of a principal of a missionary school at Gharmura, injuring him, his wife and daughter. They are from Mizoram and later shifted to Kolasib,” the SP, who had rushed to the place of occurrence upon receiving information, said.
Meanwhile, with the onset of darkness, clashes erupted between two groups after a house was set on fire. “The groups retreated after police fired in the air to disperse them. But during their retreat, at least 18 to 20 houses were set on fire,” the police official said.
There was however no casualty in the clashes, police said. Investigation is underway.
The situation along the Assam-Mizoram border has remained tense time and again since August last year. Earlier this month, miscreants triggered twin blasts on the premises of Muliwala Lower Primary School in Hailakandi district.
In October last year, several persons from the two states were injured in violence along the inter-state border after some temporary huts and shops were gutted.
Two schools along the border in Assam, including one in Cachar district, were damaged in ‘bomb’ attacks within a fortnight by miscreants thereafter.