As it is Bharat has been facing a serious threat of Jihadi terrorists. Will Rohingyas add fuel to the fire?
Brig (Retd) Anil Gupta
The Government of India has stated in unequivocal terms that Rohingya Muslims are illegal immigrants and will be deported. The central government has issued directions to the state governments to prepare the modalities for their deportation. Meanwhile, the matter has been taken to the Supreme Court by a petition filed by two Rohingya immigrants who have challenged the decision on various grounds including that it violated international human right conventions. Meanwhile, there have been protests in Kashmir masterminded by the separatists. Mutahida Majlis-e-Ulma (MMU) headed by leading separatist Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and all other religious organisations of Kashmir including Jamaat-e-Islami, Jamait-e-Ahlihadith, Anjumann-e-Share Shian and Islamic Study Circle gave a joint call for observing September 8 as a Solidarity Day with Rohingyas to condemn their alleged persecution and ethnic cleansing in Myanmar. What a paradox? The Kashmiri Muslim leadership (mainly Pak sponsored and financed separatists) are expressing concern about the alleged ethnic cleansing of foreigners in a distant land but had turned a blind eye to the persecution and ethnic cleansing of Hindu Kashmiri Pundit community from their ancestral land by blood thirsty, slogan shouting, gun trotting locals to convert Kashmir from a multi-ethnic, peace loving, multi-religious society to a monolith.
Global Links
Rohingyas have a link with global jihadi outfits. Even Al Qaeda supremo Osama Bin Laden in an interview with a Karachi based newspaper Umma had referred to Burma where a strong jihadi force existed. Therefore, it is not surprising that Rohingyas have also received support from Kashmiri terrorists. Zakir Musa, self-styled commander of Al Qaeda affiliate Ansar Gazwat-ul-Hind in a 10-minute audio message released on YouTube channel Ansar Ghazwa warned the government against deporting Rohingya Muslims in Jammu. He also threatened to “liberate” India from the rule of “cow–worshipping” PM Modi and Hindus. Incidentally, Rohingyas are also affiliated to a Bangladesh based outfit Islami Chhatra Shibir (ICS), a militant arm of the Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI) and have been responsible for launching violent street demonstrations, attacking security forces, secular political rivals, and secular individuals. ICS is also notorious for anti-Hindu violence in Bangladesh. Hence, it would not be wrong to assume that Rohingya jihadis also harbour anti-Hindu sentiments.
ISI Gameplan
Their illegal migration to India and decision to settle in which part of India is being masterminded by a core-group created by Pakistan’s ISI in Cox Bazar in Bangladesh. ISI’s intention is two-fold: firstly; to spread fundamentalism in the areas they settle and thereafter use them for Pan Islamisation of the region, secondly; to foment serious political and religious fights to force the exodus of Hindus to alter the regional demography.
Well before the advent of Petro-Islam (Saudi Wahabbi Radical Islam) and Al Qaeda, the Rohingyas in the Rakhine state of Burma (former name of Myanmar) in 1948 had started a jihadi movement for the establishment of an Islamic State. Prior to that in 1940, they started a separatist movement for the merger of their region with proposed East Pakistan much to the annoyance of local Buddhist population. In 1948, at the time of Burma’s independence, they approached Muhammad Ali Jinnah to incorporate the Western Burma region with East Pakistan due to geographical proximity and their religious affinity. Jinnah rejected the proposal due to fear of annoying the British.
A few months later North Arakan Jamaat-e-Islami was formed which spearheaded the movement for a separate Islamic nation in the region. The movement was financed and supported by East Pakistan based radical outfits. They committed atrocities against the local peace loving Buddhists and also resorted to burning and looting. The Buddhists rather than being cowed down decided to retaliate and ensured that the Rohingya Muslims are unable to change the geography of the region. Having failed to realise their dream of a separate nation, Rohingya Muslims started seeking Burmese citizenship.
Post-1962
However, after the 1962 coup d’etat, the situation became worse for the Rohnigyas. Later the Rohingyas were declared a non-national race and denied Burmese citizenship. A crackdown was launched against them in 1992 which led to their fleeing to Bangladesh and other Islamic countries which were also reluctant to host them. In refugee camps in Cox Bazar and other parts of Bangladesh they became a cannon-fodder for global jihadi organisations duly financed by Saudi Arabia. In a well-hatched conspiracy and masterly executed plan, they were also infiltrated illegally to India through porous border with Bangladesh.
One of the destinations of Rohingya Muslim illegal immigrants was Jammu, a sensitive Hindu- majority border town already facing the brunt of a demographic invasion from North of Pir Panjal and ISI sponsored jihadi terror in Jammu & Kashmir. The reason for selecting Jammu was in consonance with the earlier stated two-fold mission of ISI.
Jihadi groups in Pakistan and Saudi Arabia are recruiting and training Rohingyas to fuel the insurgency in Rakhine province of Myanmar. Petro dollars are being used to finance these terrorist groups. The main Rohingya terrorist group goes by the name of Harakat-ul-Yaqeen whose leaders are based in Saudi Arabia, all of whom are of Rohingya origin. They are well connected in Bangladesh and Pakistan and have visited Bangladesh and northern Rakhine state over the last many years. A prominent name among the jihadists is reported to be Ataullah (alias Ameer Abu Amar, Abu Amar Jununi). Born in Karachi, he is the son of a Muslim Rohingya and grew up in Mecca and was indoctrinated and radicalised in Madrasas in Saudi Arabia.
Another name that has surfaced in reports is that of Abdus Qadoos Burmi, a Pakistani national based in Karachi. Burmi, as his name suggests, is also a Rohingya Muslim. He is chief of an organization Harakat ul Jihad al-Islami-Arakan (HUJI-K) and is reported to have very close links with Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT), Jamaat-ud-Daawah (JuD) and Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), the ISI-sponsored jihadi terrorist organizations which are very active in India as well. The LeT and JeM have connections with Al-Qaida and operate freely within Pakistan which has long acquired the dubious distinction as the epicentre of global Jihadi terrorism. Operatives from these terrorist tanzeems are reportedly training and arming terrorists in refugee camps in Bangladesh and Thailand and inside Myanmar. The likelihood of them having infiltrated into Kashmir to train the Rohingyas settled in Jammu can not be ruled out. One of the two militants killed in South Kashmir in October 2015 named Abdur Rehman al Arkani alias Chotta Burmi was also a Rohingya.
Jihadi Mindset
The jihadi mind-set of the Rohingyas is well established. It is therefore no denying the fact that their presence in India is a threat to national security more so in the sensitive Jammu region and their early deportation is in national interest.
In the plea before the Supreme Court it has been stated, “Proposed deportation is contrary to the constitutional protections of Article 14 (Right to Equality), Article 21 (Right to Life and Personal Liberty) and Article 51(c) of the Constitution of India, which provides equal rights and liberty to every person.
This act would also be in contradiction with the principle of ‘Non-Refoulement’, which has been widely recognised as a principle of Customary International Law.” All of them are illegal immigrants. Their jihadi links are well established.
In the interest of national security Rohingyas need to be deported post haste. Whatever, may be the outcome of the plea before Supreme Court, their exit from Jammu is mandatory. The nation can ill afford to let the design of ISI succeed in strategically vital Jammu.
(The author is a Jammu-based political commentator and strategic analyst)
