The All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) and the Khasi Students’ Union (KSU) have demanded strong and better security for people living along the Assam-Meghalaya border.

This comes after the firing incident at Mukroh village in Meghalaya on Tuesday.

The AASU and KSU which are member organisations of the North East Students’ Organisation (NESO) on Thursday said the violence at the Assam-Meghalaya border that killed six people was an outcome of the long-standing border dispute between the two states.

“We would like to call upon all the indigenous people that this issue is not an ethnic issue but of border dispute, which the respective state governments are duty bound to solve,” the NESO said in a statement.

“Both the state governments should also look into this very important aspect in providing security as there is an apprehension and a sense of insecurity amongst some of the residents residing in Guwahati and different parts of Assam and Shillong and different parts of Meghalaya,” it added.

Mentioning that the two governments are currently engaged in border talks, it demanded the states should take the confidence of the people living on both sides of the border before arriving at any final decision.