Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Saturday said that the government will soon put barricades along the Myanmar border to restrict free movement. The announcement comes days after reports emerged that a large number of Myanmar soldiers have been entering India illegally in the last three months to escape ethnic clashes.
Speaking at the passing out parade of Assam Police commandos in Guwahati, Shah said that India's border with Myanmar will soon be protected like the border with Bangladesh.
"The India-Myanmar border will be protected like the Bangladesh border... The Government of India will stop the free movement with Myanmar," he said.
Under the Free Movement Regime (FMR), people residing close to the India-Myanmar border were allowed to venture 16 km into each other's territory without a visa.
Earlier this month, Indian Army Chief Gen Manoj Pande said that around 416 Myanmarese soldiers crossed over to India in view of the fighting between Myanmar's armed ethnic groups and the government forces.
He said that the Indian military is ''closely watching'' the unfolding developments.
NDTV, quoting government sources, said that the Myanmar troops took refuge in Mizoram's Lawngtlai district after their camps were captured by the Arakan Army (AA) militants - an ethnic armed group in the western Myanmar state of Rakhine.
The FMR was implemented in the 1970s due to people lying on either side of the border sharing familial and ethnic ties.
India and Myanmar share a 1,643 km border across Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland, and Arunachal Pradesh, of which only 10 km is fenced in Manipur.