Aizawl, Jan 6: Mizoram Chief Minister Lalduhoma has opposed the Centre’s plan to erect fencing along porous Myanmar borders.
Lalduhoma recently met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and several other Union Ministers in Delhi.
He apprised the Prime Minister and the other ministers that the current border with Myanmar was forced upon the two ethnic groups by the then British government without the prior consent of Mizo people and that it is still unacceptable for people on both sides of the border.
Lalduhoma, during his meeting with External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar, said that if the Centre constructs border fencing along the Mizoram-Myanmar border, it would amount to acceptance of the blunder committed by the British colonial government which divided the Mizo people living in both India and Myanmar.
The Myanmar refugees belong to the Chin-Zo ethnic tribe and have similar ethnic, cultural and traditional ties with the Mizos of Mizoram.
The first influx from Myanmar started after the military toppled the Aung San Suu Kyi government and seized power in a coup in February 2021. Since then, over 32,000 people, including women and children, have taken shelter in the northeastern state of India from Myanmar.