Security personnel stand guard near a forest office at a disputed Assam-Meghalaya border post, a day after it was ransacked and burnt by miscreants following violence. , Photo Credit: PTI
the story So Far: A bid by Assam police and forest personnel to nab alleged timber smugglers Six people had died in Meghalaya at a place claimed by each State to be within its territory. In addition to rising tensions along a stretch of the interstate border, The incident sparked protests and isolated cases of violence in Shillong, the capital of Meghalaya, and a temporary ban on vehicular movement between the two states. This also delayed the process of resolving the Assam-Meghalaya border dispute.
What was the reason for the firing?
Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma agreed with his Meghalaya counterpart Konrad K Sangma that the firing at around 3 am on 22 November was unprovoked. But the Assam government has insisted on the incident nothing to do with the border dispute and was the result of its crusade against timber smuggling by miscreants operating on both sides of the undefined sections of the 884.9-km border between the two states. But the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), taking into account a memorandum by Mr. Sangma, Border dispute blamed for firing, “a big issue pending for a long time”. The commission said on November 29, had the dispute been resolved, such incidents would have been avoided. Mukroh Village. When the Assam police and forest officials barged in, the villagers got agitated and surrounded them, following which firing took place. The NHRC said that five villagers and an Assam forest guard died.
What was the immediate result?
What appears to be a remotely local incident has become fodder for pressure groups in Meghalaya against the Sangma-led coalition government’s failure to protect border residents. Sporadic incidents of arson, vandalization of Assam-registered vehicles, and attacks on security personnel and civilians – mostly non-tribals – sparked protests in Shillong. For six days after the incident, the Assam Police had restricted vehicular movement in Shillong and other parts of eastern Meghalaya due to security reasons. Assam-based taxi operators also prevented vehicles registered in Meghalaya from entering the state. Tourism in Meghalaya was badly affected in a year with many tourists canceling their trips and some shortening their stay to ride out the uncertainty. Complications arising out of the Mukroh incident also delayed the process of resolving the border dispute between the two states in the remaining six out of the 12 regions. “We may not be able to hold talks immediately,” Mr. Sangma said on November 29. The dispute in the other six areas was resolved through an agreement on 29 March.
How is the border dispute related to the incident?
Although the Assam government claims to the contrary, the fact that both the governments refer to the place of the incident by two names makes it clear that border dispute is linked, While Meghalaya says the place is Mukroh in West Jaintia Hills district, Assam claims it is Mukroh or Moikrang in West Karbi Anglong district. The village is also very close to Block 1, one of the six disputed areas that are yet to be resolved. Whatever the dispute between the two states, the NHRC said the police should exercise restraint in such situations and examine the standard operating procedure for firing by the armed forces in areas of border dispute. It also asked the Union Home Secretary and Assam Chief Secretary to examine and develop mechanisms or suggest measures to prevent such incidents.
How did the border dispute begin?
Meghalaya, carved out of Assam in 1970 as an autonomous state, became a full-fledged state in 1972. The creation of the new state was based on the Assam Reorganization (Meghalaya) Act of 1969, which the Meghalaya government refused to accept. This was because the Act followed the recommendations of a 1951 committee to define the boundary of Meghalaya. On the recommendations of that panel, areas from the present East Jaintia Hills, Ri-Bhoi and West Khasi Hills districts of Meghalaya were transferred to the Karbi Anglong, Kamrup (Metro) and Kamrup districts of Assam. After statehood, Meghalaya protested these transfers, claiming that they were of its tribal chieftains. Assam said that the Meghalaya government could neither provide documents nor archival material to prove its claim on these areas.
After claims and counter-claims, The dispute was narrowed down to 12 sectors Based on an official claim from Meghalaya in 2011.