Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma is slated to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday to discuss the state’s border dispute with Mizoram, ANI reported.

Sarma, along with Bharatiya Janata Party MPs from Assam, is also expected to meet other Union ministers. “I will be meeting [Home Minister] Amit Shah today on this [border dispute] issue,” the chief minister told ANI. “No specific time has been given but I was asked to be ready by evening as they might call.”

Five Assam police officers were killed on July 26 as tensions escalated along the state’s border with Mizoram. Assam and Mizoram share a 164.6-km-long border, which has long been a cause of dispute. Several rounds of dialogue since 1994 have failed to resolve the disagreement.

Sarma alleged that apart from Mizoram, other neighbouring states have also encroached upon his state’s territory. “Mizoram has also taken some portion of our land in the past six to seven months,” he claimed. “They should leave it and then make a benchmark boundary assuring that no further encroachments will be done.”

Sarma also held individual meetings with the BJP MPs on Sunday, ANI reported, citing sources.

Border clashes

While no casualties were suffered by Mizoram last month during the clashes, the state government claimed that around 200 Assam Police personnel had crossed a duty post manned by the Central Reserve Police Force and state police in Vairengte town of Mizoram’s Kolasib district.

On August 5, the two state governments signed a joint declaration “to remove tensions prevailing around the inter-state borders and to find lasting solutions”. Both the sides agreed to the deployment of “neutral forces” in the conflict areas.

Following the declaration, on August 7, trucks from various parts of the country that had been stationed at the Mizoram border entered the state, PTI reported. The trucks, which carried essential supplies including medicines, diesel and cooking gas, had been stuck for twelve days due to an informal blockade by locals.