Dimapur, Jan 24 (PTI) The NSCN-IM on Wednesday said it will not allow the fencing of the India-Myanmar border as it will "divide" the Naga people on the two sides.

The NSCN-IM, which is negotiating with the Centre for a solution to the decades-old Naga political problem, said in a statement that Nagas are indigenous people with high level of political consciousness, cultural and social cohesion.

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It claimed that the international border was created without consulting the Nagas.

"NSCN will not allow the proposed boundary fencing that further divides the Naga family...," it added.

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The recent move to abolish the Free Movement Regime (FMR) has come as a rude shock to the group in particular and to the Nagas in general, it said.

"The move reminds us of the treacherous division of the Nagas by the Prime Minister of India Jawaharlal Nehru and the Burmese Prime Minister U Nu in 1953," it said.

"As one family Nagas needs free movement from both sides," the statement said.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah last week said the government will end the free movement of people at the India-Myanmar border, and fence it completely so that it can be protected like the country's boundary with Bangladesh.

"The Narendra Modi government has decided that the India-Myanmar border, which is open, will be protected by barbed fencing. The entire border will have barbed fencing like what we have at the India-Bangladesh border," he had said.

The Free Movement Regime allows people living on both sides of the border to travel 16 km into each other's territory without a visa. Four Indian states -- Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur and Mizoram, share a 1,643-km-long border with Myanmar.

Several organisations in Mizoram have also opposed the decision to fence the border.

Mizoram Chief Minister Lalduhoma had said his government does not have the authority to stop the Centre from fencing the border and scrapping the Free Movement Regime (FMR), but maintained that he was opposed to it.

He said that his government and different organisations in the state were opposed to the fencing of the border and scrapping of the FMR as Mizos share ethnic ties with the people of the Chin community in Myanmar.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)