India’s border with Myanmar to be fenced to restrict ‘infiltrators’: Amit Shah

Union home minister Amit Shah on Saturday said that will fence its border with Myanmar to protect from infiltrators like it has barricaded the border along Bangladesh, news agency PTI reported.

While addressing the passing out parade of the first batch of the five newly-constituted Assam Police Commando battalions, he said that the Centre is thinking to end the free-movement facility with Myanmar.

“The India-Myanmar border will be protected like the Bangladesh border… The Government of India will stop the free movement with Myanmar,” he said.

Earlier in September last year, Manipur chief minister N Biren Singh had urged the Union government to stop the Free Movement Regime (FMR) along the Indo-Myanmar border to curb “illegal immigration”. He also said the state was working to fence the border with Myanmar.

India and Myanmar share a 1,643 km border across Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh, of which only 10 km is fenced, in Manipur. The FMR was brought in the 1970s as people living along the India-Myanmar border have familial and ethnic ties.

Earlier in the day, Shah took a dig at Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra saying that the party’s policy in Assam’s Bodoland has been to create distractions from main issues and stay immersed in power as thousands of youths lost their lives.

“The Bodo movement has had its history. To protect their culture, the Bodos had a massive struggle. Due to Congress’ policy to create distractions from the main issues and stay immersed in power, thousands of youths lost their lives. While some lost their brothers, some lost their fathers, some lost their wives,” Shah said at the 13th Triennial Conference of the All Bathou Mahasabha in Tezpur.

Praising PM Modi’s policies for the northeastern states, Shah said there has been a huge change in the law and order of the country under the leadership of the prime minister during the last 10 years and the mission of bringing peace and development in the northeast has been successful.

During the last three years, there has been no incident of violence in Bodoland, and it is scripting a new story by walking on the path of development, the union minister asserted.

Earlier in the day, Shah took part in the 60th raising day of Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) at Tezpur and the 13th triennial conference of the All Bathou Mahasabha at Dekhiajuli. In the evening, the union home minister launched a book titled ‘Assam’s Braveheart Lachit Barphukan’ and inaugurated the riverfront beautification project along the Brahmaputra in Guwahati.