Pakistan summons Myanmar envoy over Rohingya plight

Protests erupted across Asia against Myanmar with many demanding withdrawal of Suu Kyi’s Nobel Prize.

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Foreign Office on Saturday summoned Myanmar’s ambassador and recorded its protest over the plight of Rohingya Muslims.

According to a statement, Pakistan asked ambassador U Win Naing to take concrete step against the cruelties on Rohingyas. It also demanded that the Myanmar government should immediately stop “brutalities” on the Rohingyas.

The Foreign Office asked for an investigation against the culprits of these atrocities and make them accountable for these crimes. It added that Myanmar should act upon the Kofi Annan Commission’s report and suggestions on the issue.

Naing assured that he would convey Pakistan’s concerns and protest to his government. Thousands of people took to the streets across Asia to denounce Myanmar’s treatment of the Rohingya Muslim minority as some 290,000 of them have fled to Bangladesh to escape the ongoing violence in Myan- mar’s Rakhine state since 25 August.

More than 1,000 people have been killed in the violence, according to an UN estimate. Political and Islamic groups, along with other civil society organisations, joined protests in Bangladesh’s capital on Friday to urge Myanmar to “stop committing genocide” and take back those who have sought refuge elsewhere, CNN reported.

Protesters also criticised Nobel Peace Prize laureate and Myanmar’s de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi and called for her Nobel Prize to be withdrawn. Protests also took place in Malaysia, the Philippines, Indonesia and Pakistan.

The government of Myanmar blames terrorists for starting the violence. Marchers in Dhaka expressed their outrage at reports of abuse coming from Myanmar, the report said.

Over a thousand Muslim devotees belonging to the organisation Islamic Movement Bangladesh joined a rally in the capital’s Paltan area. The movement’s leaders demanded the immediate deployment of UN peacekeepers in Rakhine and the implementation of the recommendations made by a commission led by former UN head Kofi Annan.

Dhaka’s Buddhist community also protested Myanmar’s treatment of the Rohingyas. Security was beefed up around Buddhist temples and other institutions in Dhaka and elsewhere.

About 200 protesters rallied outside Myanmar’s embassy in Malaysia on Friday urging Kuala Lumpur to sever diplomatic ties with Yangon. The protest was led by the youth wing of the predominantly Muslim Malaysia’s ruling party, the United Malays National Organisation, after Friday prayers. Thousands of people in Pakistan from all walks of life took to the streets in major cities on Friday to condemn the crackdown on Rohingyas. In Karachi, more than 2,000 people demonstrated outside the Karachi Press Club, media reports said.

In Indonesia, hundreds of protesters gathered near the famous Borobudur temple in Central Java, and hundreds more outside the Myanmar Embassy in Jakarta.