At least 18 Assamese residents were injured in a firing by some unidentified individuals from Arunachal Pradesh along the inter-state border in Assam’s Dhemaji district on Monday (August 10), according to reports.
A senior official told PTI the incident took place in the morning at Mingmang Basti along the Assam-Arunachal Pradesh border. It was the fallout of a dispute over alleged encroachment by people from Arunachal Pradesh on land in Assam, the official said.
The miscreants from across the border opened indiscriminate fire targeting residents of Assam, the official said. Officials said that the injured have been identified and admitted to Gogamukh Rural Hospital. Reports suggested that four of them were in critical condition and were transferred to Assam Medical College & Hospital in Dibrugarh.
“Security has been stepped up in the border area,” the senior official said.
Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, addressing mediapersons in Kamrup, called the clash a “localised conflict” and that the “matter has been almost resolved amicably”.
“I have already deputed my Education Minister [Ranoj Pegu] to talk to the counterpart in Arunachal Pradesh. Our DGP (is) also in touch with the counterpart in Arunachal, and our Chief Secretary is also in touch with Arunachal Pradesh,” Sarma said.
The incident has put the spotlight back on the decades-long border dispute between the two states, which share a roughly 800-kilometre-long border. Here’s what lies at the root of the dispute, what efforts have been taken in the past to resolve this issue, and the terms of the 2023 Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that Chief Ministers of both states — Sarma and Arunachal Pradesh’s Pema Khandu — had signed.
Roots of the dispute
Before North East Frontier Agency or NEFA (former name of what is now Arunachal Pradesh) was carved out of Assam in 1954, a sub-committee headed by then Assam Chief Minister Gopinath Bordoloi had made a set of recommendations in relation to the administration of NEFA and submitted a report in 1951. In line with the recommendations of this report, around 3,648 km of the “plain” area of Balipara and Sadiya foothills were transferred from NEFA to Assam’s then Darrang and Lakhimpur districts.
When Arunachal was made a Union Territory in 1972, it contended that several forested tracts in the plains that had traditionally belonged to hill tribal chiefs and communities were unilaterally transferred to Assam.
Past efforts at resolution
In April 1979, a high-powered tripartite committee was constituted to delineate the boundary on the basis of Survey of India maps, as well as discussions with both sides. While around 489 km of the 800 km were demarcated by 1983-84, further demarcation could not take place because Arunachal did not accept the recommendations and claimed several kilometres of the 3,648 sq km, which was transferred to Assam in line with the 1951 report.
Assam objected to this and filed a case in the Supreme Court in 1989, highlighting an “encroachment” made by Arunachal Pradesh.
To resolve the dispute between the states, the apex court appointed a local boundary commission in 2006, headed by a retired SC judge. In September 2014, the local commission submitted its report. Several recommendations were made (some of which suggested Arunachal Pradesh get back some of the territory which was transferred in 1951), and it was suggested that both states should arrive at a consensus through discussions. However, nothing came of it.
The 2023 Memorandum of Understanding
On April 20, 2023, Assam CM Sarma and his Arunachal Pradesh counterpart Pema Khandu signed an MoU over the long-standing inter-state border dispute. The disputed areas that the MoU deals with are 123 border villages, which span 12 districts of Arunachal Pradesh and 8 districts of Assam.
Sarma and Khandu commenced CM-level talks over this border issue on January 24, 2022. In their second meeting on April 20, 2022, they made some key decisions. The first was that the border issues between both the states would be confined to a list of 123 villages which Arunachal Pradesh had claimed before the Local Commission in 2007.
The second was that a boundary line delineated by the high powered tripartite committee in 1980 would be taken as the notified boundary and all realignment would be done in relation to it.
The third decision laid down how this resolution would take place. It was decided that both states would set up 12 regional committees covering the 12 districts of Arunachal Pradesh and the 8 counterpart districts of Assam for joint verification of the 123 villages. The committees were to make recommendations keeping in view “historical perspective, administrative convenience, contiguity and people’s will”.
The dispute over 37 of these 123 villages had been resolved on July 15, 2022, itself with the signing of the Namsai Declaration between the both CMs, where they “agreed in principle” over them. This effectively reduced the number of disputes to be resolved to 86.
Through the MoU, the dispute over another 34 villages has been “amicably resolved”.
Of the 71 villages over which an understanding has been reached, the following was decided:
*One village in Arunachal Pradesh as per the notified boundary will be included in Assam
*10 villages in Assam as per the notified boundary will remain with Assam
*60 villages in Assam as per the notified boundary will be included in Arunachal Pradesh
The village boundaries of 49 of the remaining villages are unresolved, and the MoU states that in these the Regional Committees will finalise the boundaries within a period of six months “through continuous dialogue”.
Another three villages are located partially within the Indian Air Force’s bombing area in Dullong. The MoU states that the matter regarding these three villages will be taken up by Arunachal Pradesh with the Government of India and the Air Force.
According to the MoU, both the state governments agree that no new claim area or village will be added in the future beyond these 123 villages. It also states that both the state governments “agree to effectively prevent any new encroachment in the border areas” and that they agree that the MoU is “full and final” in respect to the 123 villages.
A police official interacts with an injured victim after some unidentified individuals opened fire from Arunachal Pradesh along the inter-state border, leaving at least eight Assam residents injured in this incident, in Dhemaji district, Assam, on August 10, 2026. Photo: PTI 
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