Imphal, Jan. 15: The United Naga Council (UNC) joined the "no border fence in Nagaland" cry against the ongoing fencing along the India-Myanmar border in Tuensang of neighbouring Nagaland.

Sources said the Myanmar authorities have started constructing the border fence at Pangsha village of Tuensang. Various organisations in Nagaland, including the Nagaland PCC, are opposing the construction. "This is an injustice against Naga people," S. Milan, the general secretary of the UNC, apex body of the Nagas in Manipur, said in a statement today.

He added that the border fence was bound to "deprive the inherent rights" of the Naga families to communicate with each other.

"This divisive policy to create a rift among the Naga family should be thwarted by every Naga. They should oppose it as this border fence infringes on their rights," a statement from the UNC said.

The council added that the land shares traditional boundaries with other nations and communities or villages.

This demarcation has been honoured till today.

"Even today, the Naga people protest against the bifurcation of our ancestral homeland by the colonialists by placing them in different countries and also, in different states, without prior knowledge and consent of the people. The Naga people will not tolerate further division of their land under any circumstances," Milan said.

Earlier, the Nagaland PCC also decried the border fence construction, urging both the Centre and the Myanmar government to stop the construction immediately.

The Nagaland PCC, in a representation to governor P.B. Acharya, had said the border fence is "not necessary and will be detrimental to the well-being of the people inhabiting both sides of the boundary".

India and Myanmar share interlocked lands, which have been witnessing joint economic activities between farmers and traders across the border since time immemorial.

Stating that the India-Myanmar boundary has never been demarcated with the consent of the local people, the Nagaland PCC said Article 371A provides ownership and transfer of land and its resources within the sovereign powers of Nagaland state. Urging the Naga people to join hands, the UNC said Naga people can no longer tolerate "external forces" trying to separate the "Naga family".