Security tightened along Assam-Nagaland border areas

Guwahati/Kohima, Oct 7 (IANS) Security has been further tightened along the Assam-Nagaland border areas to check and curb the movement of extremists, anti-social elements, and to prevent unlawful activities, an official said on Saturday.

Officials of both Assam and Nagaland governments said that militants and anti-social elements sometimes do various illegal activities including unlawful trade of forest resources and wildlife on either side of the border. 

Additional District Magistrate (ADM) of Sivasagar district of Assam has enforced night curfew in a 5-km belt on the Assam side of Sivasagar district, which shares a border with Nagaland. 

The night curfew, which is in effect from 6 p.m. in the evening to 6 a.m. in the morning, will remain in place till November 6. 

"The decision to enforce the night curfew has been taken as a precautionary measure to deter anti-social elements, extremists, and unlawful activities from crossing the Assam-Nagaland border within the Sivasagar district," a district official said. 

He said that during the period of the night curfew, the movement of any person, group of persons, or vehicular traffic is strictly prohibited within the specified area. 

Assam shares a 512-km-long border with Nagaland and several patches of the inter-state border are disputed and the two states are now in parley to resolve the dispute. 

After a series of top-level meetings, the Assam and Nagaland governments in 2021 withdrew their respective forces from the disputed sites. 

Though the decades-old Nagaland and Assam border dispute cases have been pending in the Supreme Court for many years, the Chief Ministers of the two states held several meetings and are trying to settle the issues out of court. 

Many people have been killed, most of them on the Assam side, in the attacks by the armed forces from Nagaland in different incidents in 1979, 1985, 2007 and 2014.