Indian state deploys 4,000 commandos after border killings

GUWAHATI AFP July27, 2021- India’s Assam state said Tuesday it will deploy 4,000 commandos to guard its border with a rival state after six police officers were killed in a gun battle between the feuding neighbours.   

More than 60 others were injured in the rare showdown Monday on Assam’s border with Mizoram. The two have been wrangling over their border for decades.   

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma told reporters at Silchar, near where the battle was fought, that the “new commando battalion” would be deployed on the border.   

Tensions had been building between the two states since last month when Mizoram alleged that Assam had encroached on its territory.   

Assam in turn accused Mizoram villagers of encroaching instead on reserve forest land.   

Federal Home Minister Amit Shah has sought to defuse the row but a solution to the long-standing dispute did not appear imminent.