New Delhi, Nov. 26: Mizoram has asked the Centre to seal the Indo-Myanmar border, adding to voices from the Northeast seeking a check on smugglers and traffickers .

The Mizoram government has sent a short letter to the home ministry on this, sources said.

Earlier in the week, Manipur raised similar concerns while intelligence reports sounded an alert on an increase in arms smuggling on October 31.

“They want the entire border sealed by deployment of paramilitary forces,” a home ministry official said.

According to sources, Aizawl had become a “wholesale market” for arms dealers who criss-cross Myanmar and Bangladesh via this porous region to sell their wares.

Security agencies are also worried by Chinese involvement in arms smuggling.

The Centre is alarmed by feedback on theNSCN (Khaplang) having contacts across the border with Myanmarese arms smugglers. The NSCN (Isak-Muivah) faction, too, is known to indulge in cross-border arms deals.

The matter came up for discussion between foreign secretary Shiv Shankar Menon and Myanmar’s deputy foreign minister U Kyaw Thu in Yangon last weekend.

Home ministry officials said it was not possible to give in to such requests as it is an “open border” and people of the two countries are engaged in regular trade. Moreover, “friendly” Myanmar joined the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) as an observer and will take over the chairmanship of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) next year.

Notwithstanding the concern over arms smuggling, the two countries have finalised the opening of one more border trade point at Avakhung in Phek district of Nagaland to promote trade.

On Saturday, the Manipur police chief had asked home minister Shivraj Patil at a conference of directors-general of police to review security on the international border.