CM Lalduhoma hopes India-Myanmar border in Mizoram won't be fenced

Mizoram Chief Minister Lalduhoma on Wednesday expressed optimism about the Centre exempting the 510-km-long stretch of the India-Myanmar border in Mizoram from being fenced, an official said.

During an interaction with leaders of Zo Reunification Organisation (ZORO) in Aizawl, Lalduhoma also expressed hope that the Union government would not lift the existing Free Movement Regime (FMR) with the neighbouring country, the official said.

Lalduhoma told ZORO members that he had discussed the matters with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah and requested them to maintain the status quo.

Aizawl-based Zo Reunification Organisation (ZORO), a Mizo group that seeks reunification of all Chin-Kuki-Mizo-Zomi tribes of India, Bangladesh and Myanmar under one administrative unit, said it will bring out peaceful rallies at Zokhawthar and Vaphai along the India-Myanmar border on May 16 to protest the Centre’s decision to fence the border and end the FMR.

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Mizoram shares a 510-km-long border with Myanmar’s Chin state and Mizos share ethnic ties with the Chins.

More than 34,000 people from Chin state are currently taking shelter in different parts of Mizoram, according to the state home department. The Chin people fled their homes following a military coup in the neighbouring country in February 2021.

The Mizoram government, civil society organisations and student bodies have strongly opposed the Centre’s decision to fence the India-Myanmar border and lift the FMR because they believe it will affect close contacts between ethnic communities of the two countries.

The Mizoram Assembly had on February 28 passed a resolution opposing the Centre’s decision to fence the India-Myanmar border and abolish the FMR.