NEW DELHI, 01 August 2021, (TON): A day after they summoned each other’s officials over the July 26 border incident in which six Assam Police personnel were killed in firing and clashes, Assam and Mizoram refused to honour the summons. The deadlock is adding to tensions between the two states.

Referring to the Mizoram Police FIR which names him and six officials, it has been filed in Vairengte, the town in Kolasib district which borders Assam’s Cachar district where Assam Police too has lodged an FIR against Mizoram officials, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma told reporters Saturday, “It is childish of them (Mizoram), but the fact is that the place where the clashes happened belongs to Assam. So if a case has to be registered, the jurisdiction falls under Assam Police. But now since cases have been registered (by both states), I feel both governments should hand it over to the CBI or NIA.”

In a Twitter post, Sarma said “he would be very happy to join the probe but asked why it was not being handed over to a neutral agency.

He said “why is the case not being handed over to a neutral agency, especially when the place of occurrence is well within the constitutional territory of Assam?”

Assam DGP Bhaskarjyoti Mahanta said “we don’t recognise the summons or the case registered by Mizoram Police. They simply cannot say they have jurisdiction over a land that does not belong to them. This (case) does not mean anything to us.”

Mizoram Home Minister Lalchamliana, referring to the Assam FIR, said Mizoram was not going to respect summons from Assam Police.

On the impasse, a senior Assam official told media “the Sunday Express that nothing has changed at the border though the July 28 meeting in New Delhi, Chief Secretaries and DGPs of the two states met the Union Home Secretary, decided that Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) will be deployed in the disturbed area, and the two state governments will work out an arrangement in coordination with the Ministry of Home Affairs to facilitate the functioning of neutral forces within a “reasonable time frame”.