Tension gripped Assam-Nagaland border areas in Golaghat district on Thursday following firing by miscreants from the Nagaland side, killing one person and injuring three others.
The fresh incident took place in Ratanpur, which falls under the disputed belt along the Assam-Nagaland border. According to the victims, a group of armed miscreants from Nagaland side fired at them when they were harvesting the crop in their paddy fields.
“The affected people said that they had gone there for harvesting. The fields are close to the Assam-Nagaland border and it falls under Sector B of the Assam-Nagaland border. However, all of a sudden some people came with arms and started firing,” Golaghat Superintendent of Police PP Singh said while adding that four people were injured but one breathed his last later.
The fresh incident came as a reminder of the attack by the miscreants from Nagaland side on people living on the Assam side of the border in August this year which led to killing of over 11 people and displacement of over 10,000 people on the Assam side of the border.
“It is difficult to comment at this moment as to how many people actually had gone for harvesting. Some people are missing,” Singh said while adding that he had already taken up the matter with the concerned district administration in Nagaland.
“It is difficult to comment right now. However, the villagers on the Nagaland side of the border denied their involvement in the firing,” he said. Police did not rule out hand of Naga militants behind the incidents.
Assam and Nagaland recently held two rounds of chief ministerial-level talks over the border clash in August and decided to maintain status quo. The Church leaders and community leaders of Nagaland recently met Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi and both sides agreed to cooperate during the ongoing harvesting season.
It may be mentioned here that Assam and Nagaland share a 434 km border. The Assam-Nagaland inter-state border area has been divided, for administrative convenience, into six sectors - A, B, C, D, E and F- spread over Sivasagar, Jorhat, Golaghat and Karbi Anglong districts.
All of these are in Assam present. The Assam-Nagaland border conflict dates back to December 1, 1963, when Nagaland was officially declared a State, after a 16-point agreement was signed in 1960 between the then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and the leaders of the Naga People’s Convention.
There have been 17 skirmishes between the two bordering states since then which includes two major incidents.
A BlOODY PAST