New Delhi:
Mizoram Chief Minister Lal Thanhawla today said his state, sharing "porous" international borders with Myanmar and Bangladesh, remains prone to a host of illegal activities like smuggling of weapons, narcotics and Fake Indian Currency Notes (FICN).
"Mizoram shares 722-km long porous international borders with Bangladesh and Myanmar and free movement regime is allowed along this 404-km Indo-Myanmar border. This 404 km Indo-Myanmar unfenced border is characterised by inhospitable terrain covered with dense canopy. Hence, the Assam Rifles cannot effectively dominate the Indo-Myanmar border," Thanhawla said at the Internal Security Conference of Chief Ministers in New Delhi.
He said, "This has direct bearing on the internal security for not only Mizoram but also for the whole north eastern states as Indian Insurgent Groups (IIGs) use it as a conduit for arms smuggling and for crossing over to neighbouring countries for seeking refuge or training." Lal Thanhawla said that as the "state also shares 284-km with three adjoining militancy-affected states...It remains prone to smuggling of weapons, narcotic drugs and FICN."
The chief minister, however, said that the overall security situation in his state was good.
"By and large, the overall internal security scenario in Mizoram is satisfactory, although the state has witnessed instances of issue of threat and intimidation by factions of defunct HPC(D), a Hamar insurgent outfit based in Manipur in the recent election to the village councils. And there were also few stray incidents of infiltration by insurgent outfits from the neighbouring states," he said.
The chief minister welcomed the proposal to amend the Border Security Force (BSF) Act, 1968 to mandate the border guarding force with powers of search, seizure and arrest in areas other than the borders.