Uneasy calm prevails in Nagaland-Assam border area in Wokha dist.

Fresh tension has once again gripped Nagaland-Assam border area in and around Mekirang village, Bhandari sub-division, Wokha after one of the villagers was attacked with a dao from behind by a miscreant on April 19 night.

Speaking to Nagaland Post, Mekirang Village Council (MVC) chairman N. Sorenthung Lotha said the attack followed an incident which occurred inside the village jurisdiction. Sorenthung informed that on April 17 evening one Kolia who was residing in Mekirang village beat up three village youths without any reasons.

Following the April 17 incident, MVC asked Kolia to give an explanation as to why he assaulted the youths. Kolia after refusing to appear before the council left his house and went to stay with his father-in-law in the village.

On April 19 night, when the Village Development Board (VDB) secretary was returning home with one of his friends, they stopped by the house of Kolia’s father-in-law.

He casually asked Kolia to come appear before the village council. Kolia instead of replying began picking up a fight with the VDB secretary Sem Tokpi. When his friend Enithung Tsopoe intervened, he was attacked from behind with a dao.

According to Sorenthung, Tsopoe has been admitted to community health centre, Bhandari with “nine stitches.”

After the incident irate villagers burnt down the house of Kolia while Kolia escaped to Turani village in Assam. He said that Kolia was allowed to reside in Mekirang village as he had accepted to adhere to traditions and norms of the village.

Kolia is said to have lodged a complaint with Merapani police station in Assam and misinformed about the whole sequence of events to villagers and communities settled there.

Kolia has even alleged the villagers had even “raped” non-local women in the village, said Sorenthung.

Following the incident, MVC chairman said around 80 to 90 unidentified persons from Assam crossed over to Mekirang village and created a commotion inside the village.

He also alleged that Merapani police station OC even crossed over to inquire about the incident. Sorenthung said CRPF personnel, Assam police and Nagaland police have jointly intervened only on Sunday after which there were reports of uneasy calm being reported from the area.

When contacted, 40 Bhandari A/C MLA Mmhonlumo Kikon said he visited the victim who was attacked with a dao. The MLA has asked OC Bhandari to file an FIR since it was “law and order” issue within the state.

The district administration has been fully alerted and it was coordinating with others to solve the issue lest it flared up into an inter-state border issue.

It has been observed that such law and order problems have frequently turned into “border row” between the neighboring states as the same have not been seriously addressed.

Mmhonlumo has requested the state government to initiate institutionalizing border policing and the people to people contact and friendship exercises as a strategy to address the issues.

He also expressed the need for separate control rooms at every police station to tackle law and order issues in the sensitive border areas.

“How the state handles small skirmishes at the border will determine how effective the administration will be able to facilitate the construction of the newly proposed railway tracks from Dimapur to Tizit since it will have to traverse the entire length and breadth of Assam-Nagaland border”, said Mmhonlumo.

It may be recalled that between June 5 and 7, 2012, tension prevailed in the same area “illegal encroachers” from Assam armed with crude weapons chased away Mekirang villagers while they were working in their field at Tirang colony around 10 km from Bhandari sub-division, Wokha.

An economic blockade was imposed by Assam based organizations on August 18 last year as fallout of an impasse between Mekirang village and neighbouring Gaur Basti villagers over 250 bighas belonging to Mekirang village.

The villagers had alleged that their land was encroached by people from the neighbouring state working in the village.

A stand-off between Gaur Basti and Mekirang in August ensued when people from Assam tried to forcibly cross the Mekirang River towards the hill section to work in the field.

The situation was however diffused after the intervention of higher authorities from both Golaghat and Wokha.

On August 28, 2012, MVC had stated that GB of Gaur/Turani Basti, Bhuto had assured that villagers would pay annual tax to Mekirang “in cash or kind” for cultivation in 124 bihgas of terraced fields and 100 bighas of “bahar” area for the year 2012 only.

Gaur Basti GB had promised and assured that he would collect the “khazona” (tax) from all 44 Gaur Basti villagers and pay the same “annually” in front of government officials from Nagaland and Assam.

Since then, no major report of tension surfaced till the latest incident in which an internal Mekirang village issue has almost turned into an inter-state issue.