The Kuki Inpi Manipur (KIM) and Kuki Students’ Organisation General Headquarters (KSO-GHQ) have strongly condemned the alleged act of torching of houses belonging to Mizo people of Vairengte village in Mizoram border and the repeated violent attack committed by the local villagers of Cachar district of Assam inside the Mizoram’s Kolasib district.
Vice-president (Political Affairs) of KIM, Sominthang Doungel said that KIM with great heartache and resentment condemned the act of burning down of houses belonging to the Mizo people of Vairengte village in Mizoram on October 17 by some miscreants on the Assam side of the border.
He continued that blockade of all commercial roads connecting Mizoram by local people of Assam which led to the interruption of supply of all essentials commodities that too at this time of pandemic COVID-19 also infringed upon the rights to the people in Mizoram and is totally against humanitarian laws.
He maintained that the place of incident or part of the areas have been the ancestral land of the Mizos before the colonial British annexed the entire Chin Lushai Hills in 1889 and is inclusive when Mizoram attained statehood in 1986 and will not allow anyone to take an inch of the land.
The repeated altercation and arsons due to land disputes could have been avoided had there been proper demarcation of land during the North East Re-organisation Act of 1971, he added.
KIM has appealed to the Assam government to take appropriate actions against the Bangladeshi miscreants who perpetrated such cases of savagery on the Mizos and to restore peace and normalcy within the disputed border areas, he added.
Meanwhile, KSO-GHQ, Manipur said that the student body is perturbed by the unlawful entry and repeated violent attack committed by the local villagers of Cachar district of Assam inside the Mizoram’s Kolasib district while it is also alarmed by the severity with which the hostility were being carried out on October 17.
The student body recalled that a farm hut and a betel nut plantation belonging to two Mizoram residents were set on fire by Bangladeshi immigrants from neighbouring Cachar district recently.
It also said that the recent clashes have been triggered by stone pelting by people armed with machetes, iron rods etc from Lailapur village in Cachar district. The subsequent blockage of entry of goods and essential commodities into the state was a gross violation of laws that could hamper relation between the two states, it added.
KIM and KSO-GHQ have strongly appealed to the Assam government to remove the blockage of entry of goods and settle all contentious issues by democratic and lawful means.
