New Delhi: After the disclosure of the links between Rohingya Muslims and Tablighi Jamaat, the Jammu and Kashmir administration has tightened security arrangement security in the areas in the region where Rohingyas live.
Bhatindi and Sunjwan areas in Jammu, with a population of almost 1 lakh each, have been declared as hotspots. Authorities have sealed the areas, enforcing a prohibition on any sort of movement by the people. The Jammu Police is also using drones in several districts for surveillance in order to keep a check on movement of people amid the nationwide lockdown. A few days ago, the administration had arrested at least 10 Rohingya Muslims from a mosque in this area and had sent them to quarantine centre.
Among these, the police said that two of them were from Hyderabad and were hiding in the Bhatindi area of Jammu after changing their hideout. Later, police arrested 22 people of Jamaat from the Firdosabad mosque in Bathinda, in which nine were found to be coronavirus positive.
As per intelligence reports, Rohingyas residing in camps in different parts of the country, including Hyderabad had attended the Tablighi Jamaat ‘Ijtema’ at Mewat in Haryana and then took part at a religious congregation at the Markaz at Nizamuddin in New Delhi. After attending the Jamaat event, some of Rohingya Muslims went back to Jammu instead of surrendering themselves to the police.
There are around 40,000 Rohingyas living in different parts of the country and only 17,000 have registered as refugees with the UNHCR. The government has repeatedly insisted that the Rohingya are illegal immigrants, even those registered with the UN refugee agency, and would be deported.
On April 18, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has asked all states and UTs to screen Rohingya Muslims living in their jurisdiction for coronavirus COVID-19 as many of them had attended the Tablighi Jamaat congregation in Delhi’s Nizamuddin area.
Bureau Report
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