Union Home Minister Amit Shah has announced that India’s border along Myanmar would be fenced in a bid to restrict free movement into India. The announcement comes amid a high number of Myanmar soldiers fleeing into India to escape ethnic clashes.
“India’s border with Myanmar to be protected like border with Bangladesh,” Amit Shah said at passing out parade of Assam Police commandos.
In the past three months, around 600 soldiers from the Myanmar Army have entered India. Following the takeover of their camps by militants from the Arakan Army (AA), an ethnic armed organization in the western state of Rakhine, Myanmar, they sought sanctuary in the Lawngtlai district of Mizoram, according to government sources.
India will remove the Free Movement Regime (FMR) that now exists between the two nations in order to erect a fence along the border. Soon, residents of border regions will need a visa in order to access the other nation.
The FMR was brought in the 1970s as people living along the India-Myanmar border have familial and ethnic ties.
