THE exchange of fire between the Assam Police and the Nagaland Armed Police at Merapani in the border district of Golaghat in Assam for three days from June 4 in 1985 is considered the worst incident of violence relating to the boundary dispute between the two States.
According to the records of the Border Areas Department of the Assam government, the firing resulted in 41 deaths, including that of 28 police personnel. Eighty-nine policemen and 12 civilians were injured; 96 villages, involving 7,606 families, in the Merapani area of the Doyang Reserve Forest were affected; and 12 schools, 16 temples, three mosques, a public works department (PWD) rest house, a forest beat office, a magistrate’s quarter, a veterinary subcentre, two village panchayat office, a forest check gate, five border outposts, a rice mill, a kerosene depot, 238 shops/market sheds, a bank and two PWD bridges were destroyed in arson. In all, 46 relief camps were opened in different parts of Golaghat district. At the initial stage, there were 32,229 refugees.
In 1979, following violence in Chungajan, 54 people were killed and 39 were injured, 467 huts were burned down, 23,500 fled to safety, and 13 relief camps were set up in Sarupathar and Bokajan in Assam.
In 1982, clashes broke out when the Assam Forest Department re-established the check gate in New Chunthia. One Naga civilian was killed in police firing.
In 1989, 25 residents of Rajapukhari on the Assam border were killed during clashes.
Sushanta Talukdar
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