Home Ministry To Soon Set Up Restrictions For FMR Along Mizoram-Myanmar Border

The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) may soon systematize the Free Movement Regime (FMR) along the Mizoram-Myanmar international border without inconveniencing the local people living in the border areas, a senior state government official said.

The FMR may soon be systematised and restricted along the 404 km-long Mizoram-Myanmar border as it was being used by insurgents and other criminal elements due to the strategic location of the state, Additional Secretary for Home Lalbiakzama told PTI.

With Mizo people residing both in Mizoram and Myanmar, the FMR was in place for their free movement for up to 16 km without valid travel documents. "The MHA expressed concern over the abuse of the FMR as insurgents of both the Indian and Myanmar sides used to freely move on the porous border areas while smugglers, drug traffickers and gun-runners were also using the same routes," he said.

The MHA had asked the Mizoram government to submit a report on the situation in the border areas, Lalbiakzama said. The state home department had already made suggestions on streamlining the FMR during the visit of Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh.

Meanwhile, the state home department said, not a single Rohingya Muslim refugee had entered Mizoram till date. About 170 Arakanese civilians who had taken shelter in some villages in Lawngtlai district of Mizoram had returned to their respective villages in Arakan, the home department said. PTI