A Bengali-medium school in Mizoram’s Kolasib district, bordering Assam, was hit by a bomb blast on Thursday night, The Northeast Today reported. However, there were no casualties.

The school at Saihapui V village functioned under the Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan, a central government programme, according to the police. It was built by the Assam government on Mizoram territory, but attended by students of Mizoram.

Mizoram Deputy Inspector General of Police Lalbiakthanga Khiangte said the miscreants used gelatine to destroy the building. He added that the school was close to Saihaipui V Village task force duty post, which was dismantled by a mob from Hawaithang under Assam’s Cachar district and surrounding villages on October 17 with the help of Assam Police officials. A case has been registered at the Vairengte police station under various sections.

Khiangte said he has been camping in Vairengte town since violence erupted there on October 17. After the violence, Kolasib Deputy Commissioner H Lalthlangliana had said that a large number of Vairengte residents assembled when people from Assam, who were armed with sticks, pelted stones at a group near the auto-rickshaw stand on the outskirts of the border village, according to PTI.

The mob from Vairengte retaliated and set ablaze about 20 temporary bamboo huts and stalls built along the National Highway despite a prohibitory order being in place, he said. Vairengte in Kolasib district is on the northern fringe of Mizoram through which the National Highway 306 passes, linking the state to Assam.

Mizoram was part of Assam till 1972, before it became a separate Union Territory. In 1987, it became a full-fledged state. The three South Assam districts of Cachar, Hailakandi and Karimganj share a 164.6-km-long border with Mizoram’s Kolasib, Mamit and Aizawl districts.

Much of the boundary is contested and the two states have often argued over it, sometimes violently. Several rounds of talks, at various levels, since 1994 have failed to resolve the disagreement.