Security beefed up along Mizoram-Myanmar border to check entry of Rohingya Muslims

Mizoram shares a 404-km international border with Myanmar.

Security has been beefed up and patrolling by the Assam Rifles intensified along the Mizoram-Arakan (Myanmar) border in the state’s Lawngtlai district, in view of the possibility of Rohingya Muslim militants and refugees attempting to enter the state.

A Rohingya Muslim boy, Rahim Ullaha, right, carries his belongings as they shift to another place after their shelter was inundated with rain water at Kutupalong refugee camp, Bangladesh, Tuesday, Sept. 19, 2017. (AP)

A senior home department official said on Tuesday that several meetings were held by the Mizoram police, paramilitary forces and intelligence agencies of both the central and state governments to review the security situation along the Myanmar border.

“Not a single Rohingya Muslim has so far entered Mizoram,” he added.

Mizoram shares a 404-km international border with Myanmar and a 318-km border with Bangladesh.

Meanwhile, around 170 refugees -- mainly Christians -- from Arakan in Myanmar, who entered Mizoram recently, had remained in the villages in the southern parts of the state, the official said.

The refugees had fled Arakan in Myanmar’s Rakhine state in the wake of clashes between the Myanmar Army and the Arakan Liberation Army.