Jorhat, Feb. 17 : Tension has been building along the Assam-Nagaland border since yesterday after some persons from Nagaland reportedly built a few thatched huts at Rajapukhuri area under B-sector of the disputed inter-state boundary.
Official sources in the Golaghat district administration said Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) troops deployed in the area later pulled down the structures.
However, trouble started again today when people from the Nagaland side in Wokha district tried to build huts in the area leading to protests by residents from the Assam side who claimed that the houses were being constructed in land belonging to Assam.
The site where the structures were set up is inhabited by displaced Adivasis who had to flee after goons from the neighbouring state killed several people of the community and torched their houses in August last year, leading to an inter-state crisis. A section of them are still residing in relief camps at Uriamghat under Sarupathar subdivision in Golaghat district of Assam.
About 10,000 people from 16 villages had fled their homes on the Assam side and officially 11 people were killed in the carnage, leading Assam and Nagaland chief ministers, Tarun Gogoi and T.R. Zeliang respectively, to meet in the presence of Union minister of state for home Kiren Rijiju in Guwahati on August 21 last year to defuse the situation.
CRPF forces are deployed along the disputed area belt (DAB) between the two districts divided into four sectors - A, B, C and D - covering 125km. The neutral force has been deployed to maintain status quo in the belt and peace and harmony in adherence to the interim agreement of 1979 signed between the chief ministers of Assam and Nagaland after several incidents of bloodshed on the Assam side.
Gogoi had blamed the CRPF for failing to respond to the situation and take timely action to check the violence.
After last year's violence, SSB personnel too have been deployed in the area to assist the neutral force (CRPF) deployed along the Assam-Nagaland boundary.
Golaghat deputy commissioner Nitin Khare visited the site today to take stock of the situation. He told The Telegraph that SSB personnel yesterday had demolished some temporary structures after the matter was brought to their notice. He said a protest was lodged by Golaghat border magistrate with his Wokha counterpart and he was requested to maintain status quo according to the order of the Supreme Court, where a border-dispute case between the two states is pending.
Khare said SSB personnel deployed in the area have been asked to keep strict vigil and not to allow anybody to set up any structure in the area. He said he had taken up the matter with his Wokha counterpart.
"We are a keeping a close watch on the situation. There are sufficient security forces to maintain peace and tackle any eventuality," Khare said.
Displaced people are being rehabilitated in safe places by the administration with only about 1,600 people living in a few relief camps, he added.
