Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Thursday said the Centre has decided to scrap the India-Myanmar Free Movement Regime (FMR) to maintain the country's internal security and demographic structure of the northeastern states. As the Ministry of External Affairs is currently in the process of scrapping it, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has recommended the immediate suspension of FMR, Shah said.

The announcement came two days after Shah said India has decided to fence the entire 1,643-km-long India-Myanmar border. FMR allowed people residing close to the India-Myanmar border to venture 16 km into each other's territory without any documents.