By IANS
Moreh (Manipur) : Trading between India and Myanmar resumed Tuesday in this border town after authorities decided to open the international border that had been sealed for nine hours to prevent possible entry of fleeing pro-democracy agitators.
“The border with Myanmar was sealed Monday, but things are back to normal Tuesday morning with border trade resuming,” O. Tombi Singh, a police official in Moreh, the last Indian township on the border with Myanmar, told IANS.
Authorities had ordered sealing of the border from 8 a.m. Monday following intelligence reports that pro-democracy agitators from Myanmar and their supporters on the Indian side could stage a rally against the military junta’s recent crackdown on civilians.
Border trade came to a halt Monday following the sealing of the entry gates although shops on the otherwise bustling Moreh town remained open.
Moreh, 100 km southeast of Manipur’s capital Imphal, was the entry point of scores of pro-democracy agitators into India in 1988 when Yangon had launched a brutal assault to crush the anti-junta uprising.
Government-backed soldiers fired on protesting monks last month and hauled hundreds of clergymen to quell the latest uprising, the biggest such protests since the 1988 pro-democracy movement that saw about 3,000 people killed.