Rajnath to meet four NE CMs, visit border areas on chopper

Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh will meet the Chief Ministers of four northeastern states bordering Myanmar here on Monday to review the security situation and will also visit the border areas by chopper, an official said.

"Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh would hold a meeting of Chief Ministers of Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Mizoram here on Monday to review the security situation along India-Myanmar borders," a Mizoram home department official said here.

The meeting will be attended by Union Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju and top officials of the Ministry.

"The Union Home Minister would be visiting Myanmar border areas by helicopter on Tuesday. The Minister would also interact with senior Assam Rifles officers on the prevailing situation along the India-Myanmar frontier," he added.

Last month, around 280 people from Myanmar's Ralie village in Arakan took shelter at Lungpuk and Khalkhy mountainous villages in Saiha district of southern Mizoram.

Assam Rifles troopers posted along the Myanmar border areas and the Saiha district administration provided necessary aid and support, including food, to the refugees. They were subsequently repatriated.

"The India-Myanmar unfenced borders along Mizoram are being frequently used by smugglers to smuggle drugs, arms and contraband from Myanmar," the official added.

Mizoram shares an unfenced 510-km border with Myanmar and 318 km with Bangladesh, providing infiltrators, terrorists and smugglers an opportunity to illegally move across the border.

There is a 16-km-wide free zone (8 km on either side of the frontier) along the 1,643-km unfenced India-Myanmar border.

Four northeastern states - Arunachal Pradesh (520 km), Manipur (398 km), Nagaland (215 km) and Mizoram (510 km) - share the 1,643-km mountainous border with Myanmar.

--IANS

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