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Assam-Nagaland border flares up |
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Pre-emptive restraint from Assam was reciprocated with uncontrolled aggression from the Nagaland side on August 8, triggering a second flare-up along their long-disputed boundary in just over a month.
The Jorhat district administration prevented a march by students towards the inter-state border in Mariani in anticipa¬tion of trouble, but could do little when a mob from the opposite side went about ransacking and setting houses ablaze on Assam’s territory a few hours later.
The incident occurred in Udaipur village near Nagajanka, under Mariani police station. Apart from targeting houses, the intruders fired at an Assam police team and manhandled workers of Bosajan tea estate.
The scale of violence would have been bigger had the police not intercepted the student activists marching towards the New Sunthia border outpost earlier in the day.
Last month, Naga villagers raided three villages near Geleki in Sivasagar district, killed two residents and torched several houses. The incident provoked an economic blockade against Naga¬land by the All Assam Students’ Union.
The president of the AASU’s Jorhat unit, Biren Saikia, said another economic blockade was inevitable if residents of the neighbouring state continued to attack villages on the Assam side.
Assam maintains that its boundary extends to the New Chuntia border outpost but Nagaland police have set up a permanent camp 13 km inside its territory at New Sonowal. Naga villagers have allegedly encroached upon land even beyond that point.
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