Aizawl, Jan 31 (PTI) The influential Mizo Zirlai Pawl (MZP), Mizoram’s apex students’ body, staged a demonstration in Aizawl on Wednesday, protesting against the Centre’s decision to fence the India-Myanmar border and scrap the Free Movement Regime (FMR).
MZP leaders said that Mizo people have been separated by international boundaries between India, Myanmar and Bangladesh, which were drawn by the British without their consulting them.
The move to end the FMR and fence the border will further divide the Zo people, they said.
Alternate measures can be explored to address concerns such as drug trafficking and smuggling without “resorting to actions” that divide the indigenous Zo communities, they added.
The students’ body has also written to PM Narendra Modi on the issue.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah, earlier this month, said that the Centre would fence the entire India-Myanmar border and scrap the FMR.
The Free Movement Regime allows people living on 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.
Chief Minister Lalduhoma had said that the state government did not have the authority to stop the Centre from implementing the decisions, but he was strongly opposed to it. PTI CORR SOM
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