Afia Ambreen
According to reports India has started a severe campaign against Pakistan vis-à-vis Rohingya crisis. Indian government under PM Narendra Modi has kicked off a dangerous game against Pakistan under the pretext of terrorism in the region. But the truth is that Indian government tries to justify mass deportation of the ethnic group on ground of terrorism. It is important to note that influx of large numbers of Rohingya into India began four to five years ago, long before an exodus that saw more than 400,000 Rohingya flee to Bangladesh since August 25 to escape a Myanmar military offensive that the United Nations has called “ethnic cleansing.” Moreover, the latest Rohingya Muslim issue has given India yet another opportunity to further launch its obnoxious propaganda and mount pressure on Pakistan.
The genocide of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar continues unabated. Unsurprisingly, the western powers and their otherwise vibrant media like the BBC, CNN et al are mum on the subject. Hundreds of thousands of Muslims in Myanmar, who are known as the Rohingya, are being targeted. Myanmar Army is beheading children, women and burning the Muslims alive while Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who is a prominent leader in Myanmar and herself suffered incarceration and deprivation and is considered a champion of human rights is backing those who are wreaking havoc on the Rohingya and forcing them to flee to save themselves from the slaughter. The UN Security Council has criticized the Myanmar government for condoning the violence against the Rohingya Muslims in its Rakhine State leading to a major world humanitarian crisis. Subsequently, India has started following a new line of propaganda alleging Pakistan of supporting the Jihadis of Myanmar, claiming that Pakistan was backing Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), headed by Ammar Junjuni, a Karachi-born Pakistani and trained by intelligence agencies. This is absolute nonsense.
The million strong Rohingya, historically termed as Arakanese Indians, are a stateless Indo-Aryan people from Rakhine State, Myanmar. The majority are Muslim while a minority is Hindu. Described by the United Nations in 2013 as one of the most persecuted communities in the world, the Rohingya population is denied citizenship under the 1982 Burmese citizenship law, which restricts full citizenship to British Indian migrants who settled after 1823. According to Human Rights Watch, the law “effectively denies to the Rohingya the possibility of acquiring a nationality. Despite being able to trace Rohingya history to the 8th century, Burmese law does not recognize the ethnic minority as one of the national races.” India has joined the fray for two reasons; firstly, the current ruling junta of India, which is guided by hate and bigotry of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and led by the “Butcher of Gujarat”, Narendra Modi, is a sworn enemy of the Muslims; secondly, in the garb of the repression against the Rohingyas, Modi finds it expedient to blame Pakistan for its alleged support to the downtrodden Muslims of Myanmar. Readers may recall that Israel is committing unprecedented atrocities against the Palestinians in Gaza but instead of condemning the genocide of Muslims, India embraces Israel as its mentor and seeks new methods of inflicting violence on the Muslims of IOK. The new instrument of terror in IOK, which has killed 200 and blinded 3500 Kashmiri youth, the “pellet gun” is considered an effective weapon to torment the unarmed Kashmiris.
Ironically, India is fomenting trouble in Pakistan’s province of Balochistan with two aims, destabilizing Pakistan and sabotaging the China-Pakistan-Economic-Corridor (CPEC). Reports indicate that Free Balochistan Movement (FBM), headed by Harbyar Marri and with the reportedly clandestine support of India, on the eve of “Chinese National Day” on 30 September 2017, organized a protest rally in Gottingen, Germany. Unfortunately, United States under the Nationalist Donald Trump dominated by the US Military establishment seems part of the Indian aspirations. Seeing the tone of US president against N-Korea’s nuclear program, India is trying to apply the same tone on Pakistan. There has also been a sudden increase in debate about the safety and security of Pakistan’s nuclear program in the US and Indian think tanks. The boast by the Indian air chief that his forces were capable of hitting nuclear sites across the border if another decision on a surgical strike was taken by the government furthers the agenda. This is an alarming state of affairs, since Pakistan has always taken up cudgels against cruelty meted out to Muslims anywhere in the world, be it Palestine, Kashmir, Serbia, Bosnia or Myanmar. Pakistanis have organized protest rallies and lent diplomatic support to condemning brutality against humanity.
