Our Bureau Sentinel Assam
GUWAHATI/SILCHAR, July 25: Now a ‘no-entry notice’ has been clamped by the Mizo organizations to bar the entry of a particular religious minority community into Mizoram. The notice evoked sharp reaction in the Barak valley. The Barak Valley People’s Joint Forum (BVPJF), an umbrella platform of as many as 23 organizations floated today, termed the ‘no-entry notice’ as unconstitutional.
However, PC Lalthansanga, president of the Mizo Zirlawi Pawl (MZP) central committee, told The Sentinel from Aizawl over telephone, “Total normalcy prevails in Mizoram, and there is no question of insecurity to any non-Mizo following the lifting of the Vai curfew, which was clamped by the Mizo Students’ Union and the MZP since July 19 in the wake of the killing of a Mizo youth near Dholai in Cachar, this morning.”
He, however, said: “Not only Bangladeshis, but all illegal settlers and traders have to leave Mizoram.” He did not spell out any deadline. However, the Joint Action Committee (JAC), which called a 48-hour Vairengti bandh demanding compensation to the family of the deceased Mizo youth, in tandem with the MZP and the MSU, told mediapersons that “no member of a particular religious minority would be allowed to enter Mizoram.” The bandh was lifted yesterday evening.
MZP’s Vairengti unit president Lalromreata alleged before a group of Silchar journalists that Bangladeshis were involved in the murder of Lalkapliana and grievous injury to his friend Lalrian Thanga. He also accused a trader of Bhanga whom he identified as a Bangladeshi and a kingpin of anti-social activities along Cachar-Mizoram border. He said like Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland, Mizoram is also becoming a trouble-spot due to infiltration of Bangladeshis.
Meanwhile, the BVPJF, which was floated today with senior advocate Himaduddin Bulbul as its president and Silchar Municipality Commissioner Sadhan Purakayastha as general secretary, has decided to continue the economic blockade at Lailapur-Bhairengti border point till next Sunday when a citizens’ meeting has been convened by the BVPJF to take its next course of action, said Purakaystha, while talking to The Sentinel this evening.
“The drivers of about 100 vehicles fled Mizoram leaving their vehicles unguarded. We are going to submit the list of these missing vehicles to the Cachar Deputy Commissioner with the demand for immediate steps to recover them,” he said. Today’s meeting has demanded of the Mizoram Government a compensation to the tune of Rs 2 crore to the traders and the vehicle owners for the loss they have incurred due to looting and arson, he added.
The meeting also demanded implementation of the clauses of the Chief Secretary-level agreement which was signed by the two Governments concerned and the agitating organizations following the 1994 riot that took place in Mizoram, he said. According to him, the BVPJF is going to mount pressure on both the Governments of Asom and Mizoram to sit across the negotiation table for a concrete settlement of the existing problems faced by the people of the two States.
Purakayastha said the Vairengti police has today handed over a fatally injured truck driver, Baharul Islam, to the Cachar authorities. The driver, a resident of Barpeta district, was injured seriously when some Mizo activists beat him up and left him on the roadside in an unconscious state on July 20. An FIR has been lodged today at the Silchar police station in this regard, he added.
Meanwhile, Dholai police has arrested Saleh Ahmed Laskar (27), Abdul Kalam Barbhuyan (30), Samsuddin Laskar (37) and Ramdhan Singh (45) of Bhangabazar and booked them under section 302/201/326/ 325/34 of IPC vide case No. 123/07. A senior police officer said the knife and the vehicle used by these accused in the operation have been recovered. He said, “We have sufficient circumstantial evidence to charge-sheet the accused.”
Cachar Deputy Commissioner Gautam Ganguli, who has been visiting the border areas of Dholai Bhagabazar and Lylapur to monitor the situation and maintaining close rapport with the agitated people for restraint, said normalcy “is fast returning”. He added that restoration of goodwill “is in the interest of the people of both Mizoram and Barak Valley”. Till date, more than 100 Bengalis from Mizoram have poured in to Cachar. Plying of vehicles, passengers and goods from both directions is expected soon.
But the withdrawal of ‘Vais curfew’ has not been without riders. The JAC of Vairengti has cautioned that if their demands are not met by the Asom Government by July 25, they would resume their agitation.
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