Hoardings ask Rohingya, Bangladeshi Muslims to leave

JAMMU

HOARDINGS HAVE come up in and around Jammu city, asking Rohingya and Bangladeshi Muslims to leave the area, while urging local residents to unite so as to “save history, culture and identity of Dogras”.

Carrying photographs of Jammu and Kashmir National Panthers Party leaders, including its chairman Harsh Dev Singh and state president Balwant Singhmankotia,thesehoardings ask Jammu to “Wake Up”.

“It is the question of the very survival of Dogras who have already lost their identity due to the settlement of people from other parts of the state on the outskirts of Jammu city,’’ Harsh Dev said.

Last week, a division bench of the state High Court, comprising Chief Justice N Paul Vasanthakumar and Justice Dhiraj Singh Thakur, had issued “post admission notices’’ asking the Chief Secretary, Commissioner-secretary Home, DGP and the IG for Jammu zone to file their response within two weeks to a PIL that sought identification and deportation of Rohingyas and Bangladeshis from the state. The notices were accepted by Deputy Advocate General Raman Sharma.

The PIL was filed by advocate Hunar Gupta, a member of the state BJP’S legal cell. Arguing the case for Gupta, senior advocate Sunil Sethi, who also happens to be chief spokesperson for the BJP in the state, said there had been an abrupt increase in the number of illegal immigrants from Bangladesh and Myanmar. Though according to the government, 13,400 Myanmar and Bangladeshi nationals have been living in various parts of the state, their actual number is much higher, he had pointed out.

“They are suspected to be involved in various anti-national activities like drug trafficking, hawala transactions etc., at the behest of enemies of the nation,’’ Sethi submitted, adding that their presence will lead to “increase in pro-separatist as well as anti-india activities in the state”.

BJP Nowshera MLA Ravinder Raina said: “There are no records regarding them, and their settlement in a sensitive border state is a great threat to national security as these people can be easily used by anti-national elements...”

The National Conference and Congress too do not appear in favour of their staying in the state. “If they are a security threat, let BJP take a call on the issue and deport them in view of its being in power both at the Centre and in the state,’’ said Congress spokesperson Ravinder Sharma.

Sources in the state police said that while there have been no incidents of these foreign nationals being involved in any terror activity, the chances of antinational elements using them in the future cannot be ruled out.

“In the absence of any mechanism, we do not know anything about these people staying here, including their involvement in any criminal activity in the country of their origin,’’ said a police officer, who wished not to be named.

Express One of the posters in Jammu city.