Data-mining by a New Delhi-based rights group has revealed 157 people have been killed in border disputes across the northeast since 1979.
The conflicts till the Assam-Mizoram flare-up on July 26 have also left 361 people injured and 65,729 displaced.
The Assam-Nagaland border has been the most violent with 136 of the 157 reported deaths. The Assam-Arunachal Pradesh border conflicts claimed 10 lives followed by the Assam-Mizoram border dispute with seven and Assam-Meghalaya border dispute with four.
Meghalaya, Mizoram and Nagaland were carved out of Assam between 1963 and 1972. Arunachal Pradesh, formerly known as North East Frontier Agency, was annexed to Assam until it became a Union Territory in 1972.
“All the victims are Indian citizens and the increasing human toll warrants permanent peace-building measures,” Suhas Chakma of the Rights and Risks Analysis Group said outlining the data in a letter to Home Minister Amit Shah and the Chief Ministers caught in the conflicts.
“The States usually approach the Supreme Court to resolve the disputes, but the demarcation of boundaries is an executive task. The Supreme Court has usually recommended the formation of boundary commissions, but if any of the States does not accept the findings of the commissions, little progress can be made,” he said.
Advising the State governments to maintain status quo till the boundary disputes are resolved, the rights group suggested certain measures such as joint enforcement of law and order along the line of de facto control and biometric documentation of the residents living within the disputed areas for prohibiting settlement in new areas.
