New Delhi, India

India's Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Saturday (Jan 20) announced that the government will fence India's border with Myanmar, just like the Indo-Bangladesh border in order to bar the infiltration attempts made by illegal migrants and insurgents.

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While addressing the passing out parade ceremony of Assam Police Commandos, Shah said, "Indo-Myanmar border is to be fenced like the Indo-Bangladesh border. The Centre, under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has decided to fence the Indo-Myanmar border to curb the influx of illegal migrants and insurgents."

"We are also thinking of ending the free-movement facility with Myanmar," Shah added.

He also applauded the Assam police for battling issues like infiltration and drug smuggling.

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"Assam has always been affected by infiltration issues that have been going on for 10 decades, Bangladesh Liberation War of 1971, drug smuggling, etc., but Assam Police has a glorious history of fighting and winning against these issues," he said. 

The announcement comes within days of a high number of Myanmar soldiers fleeing across into India to escape ethnic clashes were reported. As per reports, about 600 Myanmar Army soldiers crossed into India in the last three months and took refuge in Mizoram's Lawngtlai district after militants of the ethnic armed group Arakan Army (AA) captured their camps in the western state of Rakhine.

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Free-movement regime

The free-movement facility enables the people on the both sides of the border to travel 16 km into each other's territory without a visa.

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

The officials had earlier said that the government was planning to put up a fence across 300-km stretch of the border.

According to news agency PTI, over 31,000 people from Myanmar took shelter in Mizoram following the military coup in the neighbouring country in the year 2021. Some of them also took refuge in Manipur.

Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh had appealed to the government in Sept 2023 to terminate the FMR. The state government claims that insurgents manipulate the regime to promote their activities.

WATCH | Will this ceasefire usher in peace in the war-ravaged Myanmar? | World At War

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Shah slams Congress over Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra 

Shah also took a dig at the Congress party saying that the people who lost members of their family because of the insurgency that prevailed in the state under the Congress' rule, are opposing the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra.

"Rahul Gandhi has launched Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra recently, I asked a few media personnel here today, what happened in Assam. During Congress rule, thousands of youths lost their lives, extremism prevailed in Assam. The family members of those people who lost lives during Congress rule objected to Congress Yatra and demanded justice," Shah said.

(With inputs from agencies)