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| Radicalisation of Rohingya Refugees in J&K-A Vulnerable Target! | | | Ravinder Jalali
Recently in an encounter in South Kashmir, one of the two foreign militants was identified as Chota Burmi, a native of Myanmar (Burma). His real name is Abdul Rehman al Arkun i.e. Abdul Rehman of Arakan, (a state of Myanmar). These Rohingya Muslim Refugees, who flee from Myanmar because of their persecution, are easy to fall prey to radicalisation of extremist groups like LeT, ISIS. This apprehension was expressed by me in earlier columns some months back and when the same news appeared in newspapers and its admission by the Chief Minister, it was no surprise. Intelligence agencies, as per the reports in the newspaper, has raised the issue with Ministry of Home Affairs and called for an immediate check of these Rohingyas from settling down in Jammu. These Refugees are helped by some NGOs in providing them the basic amenities and arranging to provide education to their children in Madarassas . Earlier it was being taken as casual and mere rumour and the Govt. did not paid any heed to redress the problem.
Now the Chief Minister Mufti Mohd. Syed has made a statement in the State Assembly that there are 4912 Rohingya Refugees living in Jammu with United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) cards while 186 of them are unregistered. Interestingly all the refugees are living in Narwal Bala area on the outskirts of Jammu city. The presence of these Rohingya Refugees in our State is a dangerous and fraught with risks as the Pakistan's ISI has interference in Myanmar.
Who are these Rohingyas? The Rohingyas people are from the Rakhine State of Myanmar, who speaks Rohingy language. Some scholars are of the opinion that these Rohingyas are indigenous to Rakhine State while other historians say that these Rohingyas migrated to Myanmar from Bengal Province during the period of British rule in Burma and after the Burma got independence in 1948 and Bangladesh liberation in 1971. As of 2013, about 13 lakh Rohingyas live in Myanmar. They reside mainly in Northern Arakan townships where they form 80 to 90% of the population. During the Pakistan Movement in the 1940`s, Rohingyas Muslims in western Myanmar organised a separate movement to merge the region with then East Pakistan (Now Bangladesh). Before the independence of Burma in 1948, these Rohingyas from Arakan showed allegiance to Mohd Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan and sought his help in incorporating heir region into Pakistan. The proposal was rejected by Mohd. Ali Jinnah saying that he does not want to interfere in the affairs of the Burmese Matters. After the refusal by Mohd. Ali Jinnah, Rohingyas founded the Mujahid Party as a Jihadi Movement in Northern Arakan in 1947. The aim of Mujahid Party was to make Arakan as an autonomous Muslim State. They were active up to 1962 when Gen. Ne Win led the coup in Burma and carried military operations against them. As a result of which some Rohingyas fled to Bangladesh as refugees and some migrated to Karachi, Pakistan. These Rohingyas Mujahid are still active in remote areas of Arakan. Since the 1990`s a new Rohingyas movement which is distinct from the 1950`s, armed rebellion has emerged.
Rohingyas have received international attention in the wake of 2012 Rakhine State Riots and more recently because of their attempted migration throughout South East Asia in 2015. The 2012 Rakhine State riots were a series of conflicts between Rohingyas Muslims who were in majority in the Northern Rekhine and the ethnic Rakhines who are in Majority in the southern Rakhine state. In 2015 thousands of Rohingyas migrated from Myanmar and Bangladesh and were dubbed by international media as 'Boat People", to South East Asian countries including Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia by Rickey Boats via the waters of the strait of Mollacca and the Andaman Sea. The word Rohingya means inhabitant of Rohang which was the early Muslim name of Aarkan. Some of the Rohingyas are involved in petty crimes in Jammu. Chota Burmi alias Abdul Rehman of Arakan infiltrated into Kashmir in 2013.Now with the gruesome terror attack in the French capital, Paris by ISIS which claimed more than 125 innocent lives for no fault of them has forced the Govt. and intelligence agencies to revisit the Rohingya issue because they are vulnerable and easy target of Radicalisation by ISIS for carrying the attack on innocent people. It is the high time for the Govt. both at the centre and state level, to tackle this issue on priority with out wasting any time before it will escalate at the point at which there is no return. We have made many mistakes rather blunders in the past by neglecting the incident at the spark level where it could have been put down but allowed it to grow to the extent of becoming fire and that time it isn't possible to control it. Now the silver lining is the return of Aun San Suu Kyi`s Party winning a parliamentary majority and will form a government in Myanmar. The election has yielded more than 80% of seats for her Party National League for Democracy (NLD). But the dealing with the Rohingyas will be one of the most controversial and unavoidable, a long list of issues, Suu Kyi will inherit from the current govt. and speaking out for Rohingyas would carry a political cost at home. The group is widely disliked in Myanmar, where they are seen as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh-including by some in her party. The NLD also faces a powerful local rival-The Arakan National Party (ANP) that has called for the deportation of Rohingya. ANP won 22 of 29 national level seats in Rakhine and took 22 of 35 elected seats in the states regional assembly, one of the strongest showings by an ethnic party in the election. The Govt. at the centre should take up the issue of Rohingyas with Myanmar Govt. to ensure deportation of these refuges to Myanmar. If it will take some time state Govt. should arrange for their eviction from this state to some nearby state of Bengal, in view of the sensitiveness of this border State.
We should take lessons from 1986 and 1989-1990, when there were enough indications of growing militancy in Kashmir but at that time the then Govt. either ignored or were ignorant, and did not take it seriously and claimed that these are a few misguided youth and is a short livid. Rest is all history and we have paid a heavy price for the last more than two decades and are still paying. Same can be the case with these Rohingyas Refugees also who are vulnerable to fall prey to terrorist activities of growing ISIS. Govt. must carry out the details investigation about the revival of radicalisation and has to be over cautious against the Rohingya Muslims, before the situation escalates.
Since the Govt. and security agencies are in know of these latest developments and accordingly shoud gear up to thwart the designs of terror groups. |
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