Rohingyas start dismantling shelters in Jammu after eviction notices
A large number of Rohingya muslims (illegal immigrants from Myanmar) have, for the first time, started uprooting their temporary shelters in different parts of Jammu after the landowners directed them to vacate their plots, occupied for around twenty long years.
The families were seen dismantling their shops and shanties in the Kiryani Talab area of Narwal and adjoining areas on Wednesday.
The first batch of Rohingya muslims claimed to have settled down in the Narwal Bala area of Jammu as early as 2006. A campaign was launched against them in February 2017 when king-size posters with slogans ‘Rohingyas, Bangladeshis Quit Jammu’ surfaced in different parts of Jammu.
The J&K National Panthers Party installed the posters, urging Jammu citizens to unite to save the history, culture, and identity of Dogras. According to Rohingyas, who spoke to The Pioneer on Wednesday, their landowners have been served notices by the district authorities to evict them from their plots or face legal action for non-compliance.
Collecting their valuables, the Rohingyas told The Pioneer, “We have been told by the plot owners to immediately vacate their temporary structures and step out of the plots”.
Dil Mohammad, one of the senior members of the Rohingya community, also appealed to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah to intervene in the matter and allow them to stay put in Jammu till the situation normalises in their native country.
He also urged UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, to intervene and prevent their ouster from Jammu. The district authorities in Jammu launched this massive crackdown almost a month after a high-level panel examining demographic changes visited a Rohingya cluster in the Narwal Bala area of Jammu.
The visit was conducted as part of an on-the-spot assessment of the settlements and issues related to demographic changes. According to the latest assessment, there are 6,737 Rohingyas and 46 Bangladeshis spread across 10 districts in Jammu.
In the Kashmir Valley, there are 919 Rohingyas and 458 Bangladeshis across six districts.
The high-level committee on Demographic changes was informed that 101 cases involving 179 men and 21 women were registered against Rohingyas in Jammu. In the Kashmir Valley, 16 cases involving 41 women and four men have been registered.
The district administration has initiated action at several locations across Jammu where settlements housing Rohingya and Bangladeshi migrants have been identified.
In December 2023, the Jammu and Kashmir police teams had launched a similar crackdown on over three dozen locations across five districts of Jammu province to expose the ‘unholy’ nexus between a large number of facilitators and Rohingyas (illegal immigrants from Myanmar).
Ten (10) FIRs were registered by the police, seven in Jammu district alone and one each in Doda, Kishtwar, Rajouri, and Poonch districts.
Earlier, the UT administration launched a special verification drive in the first week of March 2021 in the sports stadium in Jammu. At the end of the drive, a total of 155 Rohingyas were found to be staying illegally in Jammu, and all of them were lodged in the holding centre at Hiranagar. At present, more than 250 Rohingyas have been camping in the holding centre.
The majority of Rohingyas in Jammu earn their livelihood by doing daily wage jobs and some of them have become scrap dealers. Children support their families by collecting and selling recyclable material, and a few women work as daily wagers in the dry fruit industry, domestic help, daily wage labourers with the contractors of the Jammu Municipal Corporation, and in local factories/sweepers in the hotels/guest houses, etc.
