- Ajit Doval, other security experts meet on Rohingya Muslims
- Intel agencies say ‘terror groups in Pakistan’ helping Rohingya Muslims
- India could be targeted, they warn amid criticism of Delhi’s approach
By NP Newsroom
Top officials in the Indian government met in the Prime Minister’s Office to review their strategy amid widening international condemnation of India’s plans to deport Rohingya Muslims who have escaped the violence in Western Myanmar.
The meeting the other evening was called by Indian Prime Minister Narenra Modi’s top aide Nripendra Misra and was attended by National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and the heads of intelligence agencies including the Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW). They focused on increasing alerts about links between Rohingya militant commanders in Myanmar and “terror groups in Pakistan” including Hafiz Saeed’s Lashkar-e-Taiba. An intelligence report reviewed by them concludes “In our assessment, penetration of Pakistan-based terrorist outfits among Rohingya Muslims community is a serious emerging threat, as the same would ultimately be used for targeting India,” according to Indian television channel NDTV.
The meeting was reportedly called after India was pointed at for its stance on the Rohingyas at the United Nations top human rights body on Monday, by the chief of the agency. India’s representative offered an arduous rebuttal, but the timing of yesterday’s brain-storming session and the seniority of those who were present illustrates that the reprimand is a sore point, reports NDTV.
Hafiz Saeed’s Jamaat-ud-Dawaa’s “charity offshoot” Falah-e-Insaniyat Foundation (FIF) reportedly holds events in support of the Rohingyas. India says it currently has about 40,000 Rohingyas who have escaped in recent years from the rising violence against them in Myanmar. Most of them are settled in Jammu, Hyderabad and in and around Delhi.
The Indian agencies say Hafiz Saeed’s outfits fund and arm Rohingya militants and show photographs of Hafiz Saeed addressing a Rohingya militant outfit in Karachi in July 2012. The chief of HuJi, a major terror network in Pakistan and Bangladesh, is a Pakistani national of Rohingya origin named Abdul Qadoos Burmi, according to the Indian intelligence agencies. It says top terror group commanders visited a conference organized in 2012 in Bangladesh by Rohingya militants.
The Indian reports say a “Pakistani Al Qaeda operative” called Maulana Ustad Wazeer visited Thailand last month to train Rohingya militants.
