Security tightened along Mizoram-Myanmar border to prevent entry of Rohingyas

A police official said the vigil along the border was tightened on the instructions of the Centre. He added that no Rohingya has entered the state till date.

Eight additional companies of Assam Rifles have been deployed along the Mizoram-Myanmar border to ensure that no Rohingya Muslims entered the state from the neighbouring country, a senior police official said on Tuesday.

FILE - In this Sept. 28, 2017 file photo, Rohingya Muslims, who crossed over from Myanmar into Bangladesh, walk through muddy field after collecting aid from a distribution center near Balukhali refugee camp, Bangladesh. On Tuesday, Oct. 10, medical teams from the health ministry, supported by UNICEF and WHO, started a massive cholera immunization drive in the camps that accommodate the new arrivals as well as many of the hundreds of thousands of Rohingya who fled to Bangladesh during earlier spasms of violence in Myanmar, racing against time to prevent outbreaks of infectious diseases. (AP Photo/Dar Yasin, File)(AP)

The vigil was tightened on the instructions of the Centre, he said.

“Three companies of Assam Rifles included personnel from its battalion headquarters at Aizawl, Serchhip and Lunglei,” he said.

The other five companies had personnel from Assam, Manipur and Nagaland, he added.

The official, however, expressed doubts that Rohingyas would enter Mizoram as the Rakhine state in Myanmar, where they were concentrated, was too far from the border and the language, religion and culture of the Mizo people were different from that of theirs.

No Rohingya had entered the state till date, the official asserted.

The India government has decided to deport Rohingya refugees from India.

Members of the community have been fleeing from Myanmar to neighbouring countries in recent times after facing violence and persecution.