Kin persecuted in Myanmar, Valley Rohingyas pained
KHIMBER: Despair is clearly visible in the eyes of Salamat Ullah. He is disturbed with the ongoing persecution of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar.
His uncle has been killed, and his brother and sister held by the Myanmar Army. His father and rest of the family have fled the Rakhine province and have taken refuge in Bangladesh.
Amid this, all he can do is to pray for his family in Khimber, a village in Srinagar, where he arrived a year back after fleeing Myanmar a decade ago.
“My father tells me there is no food and shelter. They are drenched under open sky and are hungry. I cannot do anything for them,” he said.
The ongoing violence against the Rohingyas in Myanmar has triggered the community’s mass migration.
It is estimated that 3,80,000 of them have fled Myanmar’s Rakhine state and taken refuge in Bangladesh.
According to the United Nations, nearly 40,000 Rohingyas have settled in India and 16,000 of them had received refugee documentation. Haroon Rashid, 50, is among the refugees who arrived in Jammu in 2012.
Last year Rashid fled Jammu as well after clamour for their deportation grew in the region. He, along with, his wife and four children took refuge in Khimber village .
“My uncle and cousin were killed by Buddhists. Now I am unable to contact my sister. We are being killed and nobody seems to care,” Rashid said.