Northeast, 3rd November: The Assam-Mizoram border tension escalated after a young man from Cachar district died in the Mizoram custody. Itajul Laskar, a resident of Frenchnagar, went missing from a forest area in the adjoining Mizoram border where he went for cutting bamboos. A case was also registered at the Dholai police station.
While the Assam Police official pointed fingers at Mizoram alleging this a “clear case of custodial death”, the Mizoram’s Kolasib district Superintendent of Police Vanlalfaka Ralte claimed that Itajul was a well-known drug peddler who was apprehended on Sunday evening when he crossed the inter-state border to deliver a consignment and was later found dead at a government hospital.
Amidst protest by residents of Lailapur, his body was sent to SMCH for postmortem.
The political leaders tried making a beeline for garnering support. Kamalakhya Dey Purkayastha, MLA from North Karimganj, gave a sum of Rs 5000 to the deceased. He later told the media that the state itself is responsible for the mess it has been facing.
Meanwhile, with Chief Minister’s orders, Chief Secretary of Assam and DGP Assam reached Lailapur in the evening. He reached Itajul’s house and paid an ex gratia of Rs 5 lakhs to his family members, in presence of minister and sitting MLA of this constituency, Dhalai, Parimal Suklabaidya, and Dr. Rajdeep Roy, MP from Silchar.
Later while speaking to the media, DGP Bhaskarjyoti Mahanta and Chief Secretary said in unison that no nuisance would be tolerated and for that the government of Assam is in constant touch with the Union Home Minister.
