The Indian Ministry of Home Affairs is considering the creation of a 29-battalion India-Myanmar Border Force from the corps of the Assam Rifles and the Indo-Tibetan Border Force to patrol (ITBP) India’s 1,643-kilometre mountainous border with Myanmar to curtail drugs and arms smuggling and also crimp the activities of Manipuri and Naga insurgents who take advantage of the porous border.
The new force will patrol right up to the border. Currently, the 46-battalion strong Assam Rifles safeguards the border but patrols up to 500 metres from the so-called zero line, which leaves the border partly unprotected.