20,000 hardliners rally for Rohingya – Extremists ‘threat’: India

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NEW DELHI, Sept 18, (Agencies): India’s government said Monday that it has evidence there are extremists who pose a threat to the country’s security among the Rohingya Muslims who have fled Myanmar and settled in many Indian cities.

India’s Supreme Court was hearing a petition filed on behalf of two Rohingya refugees challenging a government decision to deport the ethnic group from India. The lawyer representing the Rohingya said the decision was discriminatory. “This is clearly a case of religious discrimination and an attempt to arouse an anti-Muslim feeling,” Prashant Bhushan said. He said the government had evidence of the presence of militants among the refugees who fled a crackdown by the Myanmar government. The government said the decision on whether Rohingya refugees should be allowed to remain in the country should be made by the government.

“The court has no business to interfere in such matters of what they call illegal immigrants or illegal migrants,” the government said in an affidavit. Additional Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told the court that the government will provide evidence of Rohingya links with extremist Islamic groups and illegal transfer of money at the next hearing.

Crackdown
Many Rohingya living in India fled persecution in Myanmar in 2012. According to the United Nations, hundreds of thousands of Rohingya have fled Myanmar since a renewed military crackdown began on Aug 25. About 412,000 fled to Bangladesh, but some have also reached India, Nepal and Pakistan in recent weeks.

The next hearing in the case is set for Oct 3. At least 20,000 Islamist hardliners marched in Bangladesh on Monday in protest against the violence which has driven the Rohingya Muslim minority from neighbouring Myanmar across the border into squalid refugee camps. White-robed protesters chanting “God is great” assembled outside Bangladesh’s largest mosque before a planned “siege” of the Myanmar embassy in the capital Dhaka.

The turnout eclipsed a similar rally after weekly prayers last Friday, when 15,000 demonstrators urged the government to go to war against Buddhist-majority Myanmar over the “genocide” of Rohingya Muslims. Police strengthened security before Monday’s rally, deploying extra officers around Dhaka amid fears the demonstrators could turn violent. Meanwhile, pressure grew on Myanmar Monday as a rights group urged world leaders to impose sanctions on its military, which is accused of driving out more than 410,000 Rohingya Muslims in an orchestrated “ethnic cleansing” campaign.

Crisis
The call from Human Rights Watch came as the UN General Assembly prepared to convene in New York, with the crisis in Myanmar one of the most pressing topics. It also came on the eve of a highlyanticipated national address by Myanmar’s civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi — her first on the Rakhine crisis.

The exodus of Rohingya refugees from mainly Buddhist Myanmar to neighbouring Bangladesh has sparked a humanitarian emergency. Aid groups are struggling to provide relief to a daily stream of new arrivals, more than half of whom are children.

Myanmar has suggested it will not take back all who had fled across the border, accusing those refugees of having links to the Rohingya militants whose raids on police posts in August triggered the army backlash. Any clear moves to block the refugees’ return will likely anger Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheik Hasina, who will press the General Assembly to raise global pressure Myanmar to take back all the Rohingya massing in shanty towns and camps near the border. Meanwhile, a lawyer for two Myanmar journalists detained in Bangladesh while reporting on the influx of thousands of Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar said on Monday he had been denied access to them amid concern over their wellbeing.

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