Mizoram CM Zoramthanga suspects encroachment by Bangladeshis

Mizoram Chief Minister Zoramthanga on Tuesday suspected settlement of Bangladeshi migrants in its land from Assam side.

"Bangladeshi migrants living in Assam side are trying to encroach on our land and settle there," Zoramthanga told a news channel while claiming that Mizoram police fired in retaliation to firing by Assam Police on Monday.

Five Assam policemen died and 42 others were injured in firing along the Assam-Mizoram border that demarcates South Assam's Cachar district and Kolasib district in Mizoram.

When asked about Zoramthanga's allegation hours later, Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma refuted the same saying that Assam was only trying to stop encroachment in its reserve forest area from the Mizoram side. "We are not allowing settlement of any people in the forest land and we can not do so under the forest law. If they say that people living near the forest are Bangladeshis, people in Barak Valley (Cachar, Karimganj and Hailakandi districts) can also say that people in the Mizoram side are from Myanmar," he said.

Bengali speaking Muslims in the three Assam districts are often suspected as Bangladeshis by people from Mizoram, which has been rejected by Assam.

CS/DGPs summoned to Delhi:

Chief Secretaries and Director General of Police of both Assam and Mizoram were summoned to New Delhi for discussion with the Union Home Secretary. Sources said Home Minister Amit Shah was upset over the firing as it happened two days after his meeting with the CMs of the Northeastern states in Shillong on the border issue.