A second incident of ‘orchestrated’ violence against Rohingya Muslims camping in Jammu came to light in the wee hours of Friday when over half a dozen temporary shelters were gutted in a mysterious fire in Bhagwati Nagar area. No loss of life was reported in the area, but personal belongings and household items were completely gutted in the fire. This is the second incident involving Rohingya Muslims in Jammu in the last one week where ‘unidentified’ persons were involved in thrashing them and torching their shelters.
Scared families were planning to shift to bigger clusters of Rohingya Muslims on the outskirts of Jammu as they were feeling ‘unsafe’ in the area.
Incidentally, the site of the fire accident was located in front of Yatri Niwas, used as base camp for Amarnath yatris in Jammu. Despite presence of large number of security personnel in the Yatri Niwas on their return from Kashmir Valley and quick reaction team stationed near the Yatri Niwas, mysterious fire engulfed temporary shelters of Rohingya Muslims. However, two temporary rooms in the same plot belonging to daily wage labourers from Bihar and Punjab remained untouched.
Due to ongoing Jammu Mahotsav, the entire area was wearing a festive look when the mysterious fire broke out.
According to eyewitness reports, “Seven out of the nine temporary shelters raised in an empty plot were gutted in the fire in the wee hours of Friday.”
The fire was first reported by one of the Burmese national around 3.30 am and soon SOS calls were made to escort them to safety. The rescuers first shifted sleeping children and women to prevent any loss of life. A total of 44 people were staying in the area.
The plot owner who identified himself as Farman Ali too rushed to the spot after informing police control room to rush fire extinguisher. He said the fire fighters came after 4.00 am. Before fire extinguis-
hers could salvage anything, seven temporary shelters were completely gutted in the fire.
Farman Ali told The Pioneer that one of the senior citizens living in the plot had noticed some unusual movement in the area and informed his son to verify the same. But, he ignored his alarm. In a few minutes, major fire engulfed all the temporary shelters.
He alleged that it could be the handiwork of some anti-social elements,who are after Rohingya Muslims. He also ruled out the possibility that short circuit could have triggered the fire. He claimed that at the time of the incident the power was off.
Urging the State Government agencies to pay attention to series of incidents of attack on Rohingya Muslims, Ali said, “last week unidentified youth tried to target Rohingyas living in Talab Tiloo area. Before that similar fire accidents were reported in the nearby plot and Narwal Bala area.”
local police authorities along with some representatives of NGOs visited the site
of fire accident and started independent investigations.