Kohima, Sep 1: The Nagaland commissioner and principal secretary of border affairs, H.K. Khulu, today strongly denied the setting up of a new Naga police camp at “Bihoto Basti” in Sector-B in the bordering areas and that preparation was also on to create a new sub-division in Sarupathar.
He said there is no such village called Bihoto in the entire Sector-B and hence, the question of setting up a new police post does not arise.
“The Nagaland government is aware of the state of affairs and illegal activities in the border areas and the border magistrate of Nagaland has pointed out these facts to his counterpart in Assam and even suggested a joint operation against alleged illegal Bangladeshi settlements. But it was Assam which has opposed such a move,” he said.
Denying that Nagaland had violated the 1972 interim agreement, Khulu said in order to enforce the terms of the agreement, a neutral force had to be deployed under mutual understanding between the two state governments.
“In fact, the chief ministers of Assam and Nagaland agreed to the deployment of the BSF as the neutral force under the command of the GOC 8th Mountain Division for the entire disputed border areas of Assam and Nagaland. However, this arrangement did not materialise as the then Union home secretary was of the view that fresh induction of the BSF may not be possible and both the states have to rely on whatever force available with them,” he added.
He said thereafter, instead of pursuing a mutually acceptable deployment of neutral forces, Assam started deployment of its own forces with a unilateral standard operational procedure (SOP) wherein the so-called neutral force has to take the command from the police station and district administration of Assam only.