Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Monday said that the border dispute with Mizoram has been resolved for now, PTI reported. But, he added that it was a complex matter as it dated back to the British era.

“Mizoram has been demanding the inner line forest based on the notification issued by British in 1870,” he claimed. “Assam’s position is that there is a constitutional boundary and Mizoram is asking about the historical boundary. Assam is protecting its constitutional boundary.”

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 said the movement of vehicles between the two states was normal and added that he had been speaking to Mizoram chief minister “at least twice a day”.

“I can say as of now the situation is normal, peaceful and there is no tension,” pointing out that the two states have issued a joint statement urging for peace.

The chief minister also blamed the previous Congress governments in the state for not demarcating Assam’s boundaries with its neighbours.

“The Congress never wanted a united North East, that’s why it left us to fight for our borders,” Sarma told PTI. “But it could have been done better at the time of the creation of states. So over the period of time mistrust increased but now we are trying to resolve it.”

He said that Assam was in talks with the Meghalaya and Arunachal Pradesh governments to resolve border disputes with them.

Sarma, who is on a four-day visit to Delhi, met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union ministers Mansukh Mandaviya and Nitin Gadkari on Monday. He is also scheduled to meet Home Minister Amit Shah.

Assam-Mizoram 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.