Jihadi links of the Rohingyas are now well established. Whatever be the outcome of the plea before the apex court, their exit is mandatory. The nation can ill afford to let the design of ISI succeed
The Government has stated in unequivocal terms that Rohingya Muslims are illegal immigrants and will be deported. The Union Government has issued directions to the affected State Governments to prepare modalities for their deportation. Meanwhile, the matter has been dragged to the Supreme Court, based on 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, the Mutahida Majlis-e-Ulma (MMU), headed by separatist Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and other religious organisations in Kashmir, who gave a joint call for observing September 8 as a solidarity day with the Rohingyas to condemn their alleged persecution and ethnic cleansing in Myanmar.
What a paradoxIJ The Kashmiri Muslim leadership (mainly Pakistan 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 ethnic cleansing of Kashmiri Pandits 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.
Rohingyas have a link with global jihadi outfits. Even Al Qaeda founder Osama bin laden, in an interview to a Karachi-based newspaper, Ummat, had referred to Burma where a strong jihadi force existed. It is not surprising, therefor, that the Rohingyas have the support of Kashmiri terrorists. Zakir Musa, the self- styled commander of Al Qaeda affiliate, Ansar Ghazwat-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”, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Hindus.
Incidentally, Rohingyas are also affiliated to a Bangladesh-based outfit, the Bangladesh Islami Chhatrashibir (ICS), a militant arm of the Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami, and are responsible for launching violent street demonstrations, attacking security forces, secular political rivals and secular individuals.
Hence, it would not be wrong to assume that Rohingya jihadis also harbour anti-Hindu sentiments. Their illegal migration to India and the decision to settle in any part of the country, is being masterminded by a core group, created by Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). The ISI’s intention is two-fold: First, to spread fundamentalism in areas they settle and thereafter, use them for pan-Islamisation of the region. Second, to foment political and religious fights to force the exodus of Hindus to alter the regional demography.
Well before the advent of Petro-Islam (Saudi, Wahhabi, radical Islam) and Al Qaeda, the Rohingyas in Rakhine State of Burma 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 western Burma region with East Pakistan due to geographical proximity and religious affinity.
Jinnah rejected the proposal due to fear of annoying the British. A few months later, the Jamaat-e-Islami was formed, which spearheaded the movement for a separate Islamic nation in North Arakan. The movement was financed and supported by East Pakistan based radical outfits. They committed atrocities against the local peace loving Buddhists and 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. However, after the 1962 Burmese coup d'état, situation became bad 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 of Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar and other parts of the country, 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 the illegal Rohingya Muslim 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. The reason for selecting Jammu was in consonance with earlier stated two-fold mission of the ISI.
Jihadi groups in Pakistan and Saudi Arabia are recruiting and training Rohingyas to fuel insurgency in Rakhine. Petro dollars are used to finance these terrorist groups. The main Rohingya terrorist group goes by the name, 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 madrassas in Saudi Arabia. He disappeared from Saudi Arabia in 2012 and is reported to have gone to Pakistan to receive training in practical guerrilla warfare. He is reported to be emir of Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army, the terrorist organisation responsible for the attacks on Myanmar’s border outposts.
Another name that has surfaced in reports is of Abdus Qadoos Burmi, a Pakistani national based in Karachi. Burmi, as his name suggests, is also a Rohingya Muslim. He is the chief of the Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami Arakan and is reported to have very close links with the lashkar-e-Tayeeba (leT) Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) and Jaish-e- Mohammed (JeM), the ISI-sponsored jihadi terrorist organisations, which are active in India too. The leT and JeM have connections with Al Qaeda 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 cannot be ruled out. One of the two militants killed in south Kashmir in October 2015 named Abdur Rehman al Arkani Chota Burmi was also a Rohingya.
The jihadi mindset of the Rohingyas is well established. Therefore, there is no denying the fact that their presence in India is a threat to national security, more so in the sensitive J&K region and their early deportation is in national interest.
Some may argue that all Rohingyas are not jihadis and why should the innocent be deported. The fact is to distinguish between the two is well-nigh impossible. In any case one bad fish spoils the whole pond. 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 writer is a Jammu based political commentator, columnist, security and strategic analyst. He can becontacted at anil5457@gmail.com.)
