A jawan on alert on the India-Myanmar border in Manipur. File Photo: Special Arrangement
As many as 878 “infiltrators” were caught along the India-Myanmar border over the past two years, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) informed the Lok Sabha on Tuesday (December 16, 2025).
Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai said in a written reply that 9.2 km of the total 1,643-km border with Myanmar had been fenced so far.
The reply stated that from 2014 to 2025 (till November 30), the number of infiltrators arrested along the Myanmar border stood at 45, 32, 20, 15, 39, 57, 58, 73, 173, 212, 441 and 437 respectively.
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FMR regulated
In February 2024, months after the 2023 ethnic violence in Manipur, Home Minister Amit Shah announced that the entire Myanmar border will be fenced and the Free Movement Regime (FMR) along the north-eastern border will be scrapped. However, FMR, which allows cross-border movement of people to a certain distance without visas and passports, continued but was regulated. In December 2024, a new framework was implemented, under which the territorial limits of FMR was reduced from 16 km to 10 km. As many as 43 designated exit and entry gates were operationalised to regulate the movement of people and biometrics and gate passes were introduced.
Over 5,000 from Bangladesh
The reply also added that in 2024 and 2025, the number of infiltrators who were arrested along the Bangladesh border stood at 2,525 and 2,556 respectively. Between the years 2014 and 2023, the number of such arrests stood at 2,160, 2,809, 1,601, 907, 884, 1,109, 955, 1,208, 2,076, and 2,617 respectively.
The reply added that 93.25% of the India-Pakistan border – which is 2,289.66-km-long – has been physically fenced. The remaining 154.524 km, i.e. 6.75% of the border, is unfenced. It added that of the 4,096.70-km India-Bangladesh border, 3,239.92 km – 79.08% – has been physically fenced. The remaining 856.778 km, i.e. 20.92% of the border, is unfenced.
Published – December 16, 2025 08:44 pm IST
