Mizoram home department summons meeting with Assam Rifles over Indo-Myanmar border sealing

Mizoram home department has summoned a meeting with Assam Rifles and other law enforcement agencies on Monday over the proposed sealing of Indo-Myanmar border from first May, a senior official of the state home department said. The meeting will be chaired by home commissioner and secretary H. Lalengmawia in the evening and it will be attended by senior officers from Assam Rifles, state police and Subsidiary Intelligence Bureau (SIB), the senior official said. The meeting is believed to be promoted by the recent protest by locals against the sealing of the international border.

Six Mizoram districts – Champhai, Lawngtlai, Siaha, Serchhip, Saitual and Hnahthial- share a 510 km long border with Myanmar. The Indo-Myanmar border was sealed on April 17 for 48 hours due to the Lok Sabha elections. Polling for the lone Lok Sabha seat in Mizoram was held on April 19. Residents of border villages on both India’s Mizoram and Myanmar sides protested on April 19 at the Indo-Myanmar friendship gate in Zokhawthar village in east Mizoram’s Champhai district as the border was allegedly closed even after polling was over.

Assam Rifles said in a statement issued recently that after consultation with local leaders, civil society organisations and village council leaders the friendship gate was opened on April 20 till April 30 for movement of people requiring medical attention, essential food items and medicines. The border will be sealed again from first May to prevent any cross border activities, the statement had also said.

The senior home official alleged that the proposed sealing of the Indo-Myanmar border at Zokhawthar commencing from May 1 was arbitrarily decided by the Assam Rifles without any direction from the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) and the state government was not informed. Soon after learning of the proposed border closure, state chief secretary Renu Sharma approached the MHA, which confirmed that it did not instruct the paramilitary force, which guards the Indo-Myanmar border, to seal the international border from May 1, he said.