GUWAHATI: A delegation of the Assam Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) led by president Bupen Kumar Bora was prevented from visiting the inter-state border with Mizoram.
“Nobody will be allowed to go near the border as it has now become a “conflict zone,” Cachar superintendent of police Ramandeep Kaur said.
Kaur assumed charge during the day from Vaibhav Chandrakant Nimbalkar, who has been injured in the clash and airlifted to Mumbai for better treatment.
“The situation along the border is under control and discussions are underway at a very high level. The CRPF has been deployed at the boundary as a neutral force and security measures have been put in place,” she said.
The delegation was stopped near Cachar district’s Dholai police station, eight km from the inter-state border, and the party leaders squatted on the road for a while in protest.
Besides Bora, All India Mahila Congress chief Sushmita Dev, Congress Legislature Party leader Debabrata Saikia, deputy leader in the assembly Rakibul Hussain and working president Kamalakhya Dey Purkayastha, who is also the MLA of Karimganj North seat in Barak Valley, comprised the delegation.
“It is a big conspiracy of the BJP government to not let opposition leaders go to the site of violence while allowing chief ministers and other members of the ruling BJP,” Bora told reporters at dhlai
Bora questioned the right of the government to not allow a delegation of opposition leaders to visit the site.
“This is not the India-Pakistan border where they are being stopped. It is an interstate border so why are they being stopped?” Bora questioned.
He also took strong exception to the statement of chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma that if the Central government permits he is ready to hand over not only Barak Valley to Mizoram but also Guwahati and Nalbari. It is shocking that an Assam chief minister can speak in this ridiculous manner and make such irresponsible statements.
The delegation later visited the injured Assam police personnel in the hospital and also paid a visit to the families of the deceased.
Offering his condolences to the deceased police officers, Bora and demanded that those injured be shifted to Guwahati as there were not adequate facilities for their treatment in Silchar Medical College.
CLP Leader Debabrata Saikia said that in October 2020 an incident had happened on the border (details enclosed) when an Assamese civilian was killed in Mizoram police custody and tension had erupted in the area. Government then promised an NIA investigation.
Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi said the whole incident speaks of total failure of Union home minister Amit Shah as he is responsible for law and order. He said he wants peace in the Northeast but what happened yesterday only seems to create more disruption in the Northeast than peace, hours after his visit to the region.