Mizoram Chief Minister opposes fencing Indo-Myanmar border

AIZAWL: Mizoram chief minister Lalduhoma said that any move to fence the Indo-Myanmar border was "unacceptable" for the Mizo people, an official statement 

Mizoram shares a 510-km long unfenced porous border with Myanmar. 

During a meeting with Union External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar in Delhi on Wednesday, Lalduhoma said that the British demarcated the present boundary between Mizoram and Myanmar against the consent of the Mizo people, the statement said.  

Also Read: Assam: Jorhat-Majuli ferries suspended as water level declines in Brahmaputra 

He said that the British had separated the Mizos by carving out Burma from India and they divided the Mizo land into two parts. 

"The Mizo people consider the present Indo-Myanmar border as an imposed boundary and that is why we can't accept the border," Lalduhoma told Jaishankar in their first meeting after he became the chief minister of Mizoram on December 8.

Also Read: Assam: After Dergaon accident two road mishaps rock Guwahati

Citing that the Mizo people still dream of re-unification under one administration, Lalduhoma said that any move to fence the Indo-Myanmar border will be 'unacceptable' for the Mizos.

He said that the move to fence the Indo-Myanmar border would approve the border created by the British dividing the ethnic Mizos.

This came amid reports that the Centre plans to fence 300 km stretches of the unfenced border with Myanmar. 

Sources also said that the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) is going to end the Free Movement Regime (FMR), which allows people living on both sides of the border to travel within 16 km without a visa

Four Indian states- Mizoram, Manipur, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh share 1,643 km long international border with Myanmar.