AIZAWL, April 29 – A mob from Mizoram border Vaphai village in Champhai district today burned down all the 40 houses in Saikhumphai hamlet.
Around five people were injured in a clash with the police who were deployed in the hamlet to enforce a High Court order.
Though a number of police personnel including three platoons of armed policemen were deployed, the police could not stop the mob from torching all the houses excluding three church buildings, an Anganwadi centre and a vacant house temporarily occupied by the police.
There were no villagers of Saikhumphai inside the hamlet when angry people from Vaphai village destroyed it, reports said.
The incident took place after Justice Ujjal Bhuyan of Aizawl bench of Gauhati High Court delivered a judgement on Friday quashing the orders of the State Local Administration department instructing all the inhabitants of Saikhumphai to migrate to Vaphai village.
Mizoram Government issued an order last year, declaring Saikhumkhai as illegal settlement and eviction of all the residents on or before October 31 last year.
The villagers challenged the order of the State Government in Gauhati High Court’s Aizawl bench and the court quashed the government’s eviction order and directed the Deputy Commissioner of Champhai to ensure the return of even those who had shifted to Vaphai.
The court also directed the Champhai district DC to pay adequate compensation to those villagers whose house were dismantled earlier and reconstruct their respective houses.
Reports said that Myanmarese nationals who had earlier settled in the hamlet were already deported but Vaphai village leaders could not accept the fact that ‘illegal’ settlement should spring up in a land under their jurisdiction.
Saikhumphai’s surrounding areas, located near the banks of Mizoram-Myanmar border river Tiua are fertile and the villagers also prospered through hard work, sources said. – PTI
Around five people were injured in a clash with the police who were deployed in the hamlet to enforce a High Court order.
Though a number of police personnel including three platoons of armed policemen were deployed, the police could not stop the mob from torching all the houses excluding three church buildings, an Anganwadi centre and a vacant house temporarily occupied by the police.
There were no villagers of Saikhumphai inside the hamlet when angry people from Vaphai village destroyed it, reports said.
The incident took place after Justice Ujjal Bhuyan of Aizawl bench of Gauhati High Court delivered a judgement on Friday quashing the orders of the State Local Administration department instructing all the inhabitants of Saikhumphai to migrate to Vaphai village.
Mizoram Government issued an order last year, declaring Saikhumkhai as illegal settlement and eviction of all the residents on or before October 31 last year.
The villagers challenged the order of the State Government in Gauhati High Court’s Aizawl bench and the court quashed the government’s eviction order and directed the Deputy Commissioner of Champhai to ensure the return of even those who had shifted to Vaphai.
The court also directed the Champhai district DC to pay adequate compensation to those villagers whose house were dismantled earlier and reconstruct their respective houses.
Reports said that Myanmarese nationals who had earlier settled in the hamlet were already deported but Vaphai village leaders could not accept the fact that ‘illegal’ settlement should spring up in a land under their jurisdiction.
Saikhumphai’s surrounding areas, located near the banks of Mizoram-Myanmar border river Tiua are fertile and the villagers also prospered through hard work, sources said. – PTI
