Srinagar: The Congress party on Tuesday called for dealing with the Rohingya refugees in Jammu in accordance with the international conventions and law and said that curtailing basic amenities to them is tantamount to a criminal act.
JKPCC president Tariq Hamid Karra while speaking to reporters here said, “There are clear-cut international conventions about the refugee issues which must be followed as far as the Rohingyas residing in Jammu are concerned. The basic amenities for them should not be curtailed, as such a step amounts to a criminal act.”
Last week, the concerned authorities disconnected the water and power connections of many properties housing the Rohingyas in Jammu. They asked the inmates to vacate these properties within a month.
Subsequently, the local administration issued formal orders to snap the facility to 409 Rohingya families in the Channi Himmat, Sunjuwan and Narwal areas of Jammu. Earlier on November 25, SSP South Jammu Ajay Sharma had said that eighteen FIRs were registered during a drive against landlords renting out properties to Rohingyas and other illegal immigrants without informing police as mandated by the district magistrate’s orders.
However, the Omar Abdullah government soon issued directions to the concerned authorities to restore the water and electricity supplies to the immigrants. Justifying it, Chief Minister Mr. Abdullah asserted that the issue of Rohingya refugees is a humanitarian one. He said, “They must not be treated like animals. They are human beings and must be treated as such. The government cannot allow the refugees to starve or let them die of cold”.
While speaking to reporters here on Monday, the Chief Minister said, “It is for the Central government to decide what to do with them. If they need to be sent back, then send them back. If you can send them, do so. But if you can’t, then you cannot let them starve here or let them die of cold. The Government of India must clarify its policy towards them.”
He added, “We did not bring them or settle them here. They were brought and settled here by others. If the Central government’s policy has changed, then take them wherever you want, but as long as they are here, they must not be treated like animals. They are human beings and must be treated as such."
Endorsing him, his father and National Conference (NC) president Farooq Abdullah said on Tuesday, “The Government of India brought the refugees here. We did not bring them. They have settled them here, and as long as they are here, it is our duty to provide them with water and electricity. This is our responsibility”.
However, the BJP has termed the presence of Rohingya and Bangladeshi nationals in Jammu city a major “political conspiracy” and demanded a CBI probe to identify those involved in facilitating it. It has criticised the NC government over its asking for providing water and power connections to them, saying it was done to protect them as they belong to a particular (Muslim) community.
While addressing a press conference in Jammu, the BJP J&K unit chief spokesman Sunil Sethi said that the party will urge Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha to initiate a CBI probe and lodge an FIR to comprehensively investigate this “conspiracy”. He said, “It must be determined who brought and settled the Rohingyas and Bangladeshis in Jammu, and stringent action, including prosecution and imprisonment, should be taken against them.”
He claimed the settlement of Rohingyas and Bangladeshis in J&K began around the same time insurgency broke out in the erstwhile state in the 1990s. “This is a major conspiracy that warrants a CBI probe. All forces behind this should be exposed and punished. The BJP condemns those who support these individuals on religious grounds,” he said.
Mr. Sethi said that certain NGOs played a significant role in resettling Rohingyas in Jammu and questioned the sources of funding for these organisations. “Was the funding sourced domestically or from abroad? , he asked and said that the BJP believes the settlement of Rohingyas and Bangladeshis in Jammu, an area close to the international border, was done under a conspiracy.”
As per official statistics, there were 13,700 foreigners, mainly Rohingya Muslims, living in camps and slums in the twin districts of Jammu and Samba and working as day labourers or doing menial jobs to make ends meet for years but in March 2021 the local authorities started the process of deporting them in a special drive against what they claim are illegal immigrants. The officials claim that the population of illegal immigrants from Myanmar and Bangladesh increased by over 6,000 between 2008 and 2016.
In December last year, the J&K authorities had warned of stern action against those involved in facilitating foreign immigrants including those from Myanmar and Bangladesh to settle down in the Union Territory (UT) after their entering India illegally. “Such unlawful behaviour will not be tolerated. The police have been asked to register the FIR immediately against anyone who may have committed the offence. Stern legal action will follow,” the government had said.
The warning came following the J&K police and other law enforcement agencies in their renewed crackdown on the Rohingyas and Bangladeshi nationals living illegally in various parts of the UT found that many of them were helped by locals in obtaining various Proof of Identity (POI) documents including Aadhaar and Voter ID Card. More than a dozen people were arrested or detained for questioning by the police in Doda, Kishtwar and Poonch districts.
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) had detained a Myanmar resident Zaffar Alam from Narwal-Bathindi area in Jammu during raids at multiple locations across ten states and UTs including J&K as part of its investigations in a case of illegal human trafficking in the country.
The J&K authorities had in March 2021 detained about 170 Rohingyas from various areas of Jammu and subsequently shifted them to a ‘holding centre’ before their deportation. The move followed some of the local right-wing political parties and other organisations demanding immediate deportation of all Rohingyas and Bangladeshi nationals who are living in Jammu, alleging that their presence is a “conspiracy to alter the demographic character” of the region and a “threat to peace”.
Various human rights groups had said that “facing harassment, intimidation, arbitrary arrests and deportation to Myanmar, the country they had fled to escape genocidal violence”, about a one-third of 1,800 families of the Rohingya Muslim refugees putting up in shanty towns J&K had left for various parts of the country or went abroad between July 2021 and June 2022.
