Letters to THE EDITOR: Threat from Rohingyas

Letters to THE EDITOR: Threat from Rohingyas

Threat from Rohingyas

Asserting that illegal immigrants like Rohingyas pose grave security concerns and infringe on the rights of Indian citizens, the Centre has written to States, asking them to detect, identify and deport them.

In a communication to States on August 8, 2017, the Home Ministry said that these illegal immigrants not only infringe on the rights of Indian citizens but also pose grave security challenges. It says that the rise of terrorism in the last few decades has become a serious concern for most nations as illegal migrants are more vulnerable to getting recruited by terrorist organizations.

Infiltration of the Rohingyas from Raphine state of Myanmar into Indian territory, especially in recent years, besides being a burden on the limited resources of the country, also aggravates security challenges posed to India.

The ministry said that due to a variety of reasons, including political and economic turmoil in neighbouring countries, people from such countries enter India. There are cultural and ethnic similarities, and on many occasions such migration goes unnoticed and they settle in Indian territory.

The ministry has asked State governments to set up a task force at the district level to identify and deport illegal immigrants.

The intelligence agencies have often expressed concern over a large number of Rohingyas crossing over to India as they feel that terror organizations in J&K and other parts may use them against India.

Terror outfits like India Mujahideen (IM) and Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) have in the past expressed solidarity with Rohingyas. In fact, IM had carried out the July 7, 2013 blasts at Mahabodhi temple in Bodh Goya to avenge the killing of Rohingyas in Myanmar. Similarly, LeT bomb-maker Abdul Karim Tunda had disclosed after his arrest in 2013 that he was trying to recruit Rohingya Muslims. Pakistan-based LeT Chief Hafiz Saeed has often spoken in support of Rohingyas.

Union minister Kiren Rijiju also said in Parliament in August 2017 that, according to available data, more than 14,000 Rohingyas, registered with the UNHCR, are staying in India.

We can't ignore the fact that illegal immigrants have created enormous trouble in India. The present NDA government must deport them soon, otherwise the peace and prosperity of the country will be jeopardized.

Satish Kumar Sarma,

Kalyanpur, Biswanath Chariali.

AGP's Irony

A party that came into existence after a mass movement for six long and violent years against illegal immigrants settled in a State of a democratic Union of States is now faced with a situation in which it can neither invoke the spirit of the movement and do anything patriotic except sounding too pompous for the day nor has any new idea to counter a proposed immigration law drafted by the government of the Union which will eventually reduce the indigenous people of that State into a minority in their own land of birth.

I am talking of the AGP, Assam Movement, Assam, Indian Union, and the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill 2016. Here lies the irony of the AGP. Or perhaps this is what defines the AGP at its worst.

It is part of the BJP-led coalition at Dispur. But its confusion is ridiculous when one thinks of it having led a six-year-long movement against foreigners in its avatar as an organization of highly nationalistic students' leaders.

Rakesh Barua,

Tezpur.

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