Fear grips Rohingya refugees in Jammu with fresh threats
TESTING TIMES Fires at their homes and posters demanding deportation heighten tension Senior residents had chosen four men to guard our settlements. We got scared after some of our huts caught fire mysteriously.
the local Chamber of Commerce and Industry called for them to be “identified and killed” in April.
A string of suspicious mysterious fires at the Rohingya settlement over the past few months have further heightened the tensions. The police hinted at electrical short-circuit but the refugees suspect sabotage.
Continuing turmoil in the Kashmir Valley has inflamed religious tensions in Jammu and Rohingya refugees are bearing the brunt of it.
Described by the United Nations as the world’s most persecuted minority, the refugees find themselves under siege in their new home.
“Senior residents of our settlement had chosen four men as guards and we have started guarding our settlement. We got scared after some of our huts caught mysterious fire and locals started protesting against us,” Hussain said.
Mohammad Araf, 23, who is keeping Hussain company for the night, is equally suspicious of his current surroundings. “Perhaps we won’t be able to catch the arsonists, but we may alert the residents on time and save them,” he said.
Araf had arrived in Jammu in 2009. According to the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR), there are around 14,000 Rohingya refugees registered with them in India out of which 7,000 are in Jammu.
Last month, media reports quoted anonymous home ministry officials saying that the central government was considering pushing for identification and possible deportation of the Rohingya from J&K.
Khifayatulla Arkani, a Rohingya refugee who teaches at a madarsa in one of the settlements, explained the predicament of his community. “We have been living in Jammu for years now. But now suddenly, these radical voices against us have started pouring in. We were feeling safe here, but suddenly our world has turned upside down,” he said.
Under fire for being “illegal” and being “part of a conspiracy to reduce the dominant Hindu Dogra community to a minority status”, the refugees feel they are being targeted for their religion.
Several of them said they were not illegal and were registered with the UNHCR and have “refugee cards” that allow them to take refuge in any part of the country.
“After a series of interviews in which we gave details about our lives and sufferings, and following multiple verifications of the same, we were given the Refugee Card from the UNHCR’s Delhi office,” Arkani said. Yet, he feels their current refuge has failed to give them the security that they sought while fleeing their home.
Jalaun police have rounded 12 suspects in connection with the gang rape of a woman on Thursday. The victim has so far identified more than one. “Five teams are conducting raids for the people involved in the crime,” said Swapnil Magmain, Jalaun SP.
The victim lives in Jaipur with her husband, who sells ‘panipoori’ in the city. The couple was on their way to Jalaun from Jaipur when the incident happened. They were waiting at Auraiya for a bus to Jalaun when a driver of a loader van offered them a lift.
In the FIR, the victim said there were already three men present in the vehicle when they boarded it.
According to the woman, the driver stopped the vehicle at a liquor shop on the pretext of settling an issue with someone where more men got into the vehicle.
After they crossed Sahao Naka of Kuthaund, one of the men asked the driver to drop them near their village. When the driver refused, he was offered ₹200 extra for doing so. The driver then told the couple he would not take them to Jalaun and they should go ahead on their own. When the husband resisted, the driver took away their bag that had ₹20,000 and jewellery. The men then dragged the woman into the village where they allegedly gang-raped her.