Dear Editor,
The Rohingya, a Muslim minority in Rakhine state of Buddhist majority Myanmar is the most persecuted people in the world. Lakhs of people fled across the Bangladesh border and thirty thousand trapped in the hilly terrain after Myanmar forces began clearance operation that leads to genocide. This has started after Rohingya militants killed 12 security officers in the border post. Media has no access to that land of Nobel laureate. Shockingly De facto leader Suu Kyi has refused to criticise the army’s actions for forthcoming election in November.
Despite living for generations, Rohingya have been denied citizenship. Myanmar considers them Bangladeshi and Bangladesh says they are Burmese. International community from Malala to the Taliban, Muslim nations Indonesia, Qatar, Afghanistan, Turkey, Malaysia, Chechnya voiced anger across Asia at Myanmar’s violence. Our PM has arrived Nay Pyi Taw after BRICS summit in Xiamen to discuss issues of rising violence apart from the bilateral infrastructure projects ‘Act East’ policy. Surprisingly some forty thousand Rohingyas illegally stayed in India and fifty five thousand registered with the UN in Malaysia. Now SC of India has agreed to hear a petition challenging the government’s decision to deport all the Rohingya living in our country.
But the real danger has just begun now. In the name of Jihad for the plight of Rohingya, Myanmar may be a target for ISIS. The bottom line is that migrants are a potential pool of recruits for militants. The conflict may lighten the rod for Islamist network that stretches from Philippines to Indonesia and Malaysia with links to Middle East. The battle between Buddhist extremism and Islamist extremists has just begun. Can India’s North East escape from this global crisis?
Yours,
Kamal Baruah
Guwahati