Imphal, June 30 (IANS). Assam Rifles, along with Civil Administration and Manipur Police, launched a joint operation for identification, verification and biometric registration of displaced citizens of Myanmar in Kamjong, border district of Manipur.
Defense spokesperson Lt Col Mahendra Rawat said the initiative is an important step towards strengthening border administration and management while ensuring controlled humanitarian assistance to displaced civilians of Myanmar. Kamjong district in eastern Manipur shares an unfenced international border with Myanmar.
Lt Col Rawat said large-scale documentation work was carried out in Phaikoh, Shangkhalok and Aloyo villages of Kamjong district, where displaced Myanmar nationals fleeing the ongoing unrest in the neighboring country are taking temporary shelter.
Working under the instructions of the district administration, a joint team of 40 civil officials, police personnel, medical staff and Assam Rifles personnel closely verified the identities of the displaced people, recorded biometric data and documented their demographic profiles.
“The exercise successfully engaged around 500 people across the three target locations, creating an authenticated and centralized database for administrative planning and security monitoring,” the spokesperson said.
According to the official, the verification drive is the second phase of ‘Operation Anchor’. It is a systematic civil-military initiative aimed at balancing national security needs and controlled humanitarian surveillance along the sensitive India-Myanmar Border (IMB).
The current initiative builds directly on the achievements of the first phase. The first phase primarily focused on strengthening physical border security through improved electronic surveillance, intensified patrolling and targeted fencing, to prevent illegal cross-border movement and uncontrolled infiltration.
Lt Col Rawat said that with the move to the second phase, the focus of operations has shifted from border security to ensuring accountability in the internal corridor, under which comprehensive records of people seeking temporary asylum are being maintained.
He said the creation of a secure biometric database will eliminate anonymity, help civil administration deliver medical and humanitarian aid in a transparent manner, and provide Central and State governments with reliable records to take informed policy decisions on border administration and internal security.
Meanwhile, the Manipur government had already conducted biometric enrollment of displaced citizens of Myanmar in several districts of the state. In the neighboring state of Mizoram, authorities have so far completed biometric enrollment of more than 98 per cent of about 28,355 Myanmar citizens (including women and children). These people have settled in 11 districts of the state in different phases after the military coup in the neighboring country in February 2021.
On the advice of the Ministry of Home Affairs, the process of biometric enrollment of both Myanmar and Bangladeshi refugees is underway in Mizoram from July 2025 through the ‘Foreigners Identification Portal’ and ‘Biometric Enrollment System’.
–IANS
SCH/DKP