By Safeena Wani
“My son was 16,” says Mehjabeen. “One night, Burmese
soldiers raided our house, beat us black and blue and took my son away.” She
never found out what happened to him. Her husband died of a heart attack a year
later. His last wish was to see his son.
Mehjabeen is sitting with Naseema Begum, who fled the
country in 2008. She says her husband and elder son were beaten up and hanged
from a tree in the courtyard of their house. Her younger son was arrested for
alleged links to Rohingya Solidarity Organisation, never to return.
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| Naseema Begum, a Rohingya Muslim woman recounts the horrors of her past. |
It is estimated that 36,000 Rohingya Muslims live in
India today, most of them having arrived in the aftermath of the 2012 sectarian
riots.
The Horrors Inflicted By The Myanmar Army
Rohingya women fear the sight of a uniform – soldier or
police. “In our village in Myanmar, whenever soldiers or cops showed up, no
woman dared to step out,” says Naseema. “I saw them kill and rape women.
Burmese doctors refused to treat us.”
Many Rohingya Muslims, including single widowed mothers,
live in squalid shanty clusters across Jammu.
As Myanmar’s neighbour and as a signatory to the global
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), India has an important role to play in
not only finding a sustainable solution to the whole problem but in also
supporting Rohingyas struggle for securing justice at the international level.
India should ideally ensure that those Rohingyas who now live in India are not
subject to further abuse or discrimination. Yet, the Rohingyas continue to live
in deplorable conditions. And Khalija Bibi, who lives in a shed made of
branches, shrub and plastic sheet, is a testament to this reality. Bibi got
married in 2008 and fled to Jammu in 2012 at the height of the persecution when
a battery of Burmese soldiers attacked her at her home in the village of Hasarbi
Auk Purma in Myanmar.
They gang-raped her. She managed to escape with her three
children, but her fourth child – a 4-year-old boy – got left behind and was
killed by the Burmese. After that, staying in the village was unthinkable. Bibi
sold off her property and valuables and with Rs 5 lakh in hand, made the long
and painful journey to India. The family crossed the Bangladesh border at Jadi
Mura into Meghalaya and then paid ₹5000 per head to travel to Kolkata.
“In Kolkata, the cops took ₹ 1 lakh from us and put me
and my children in the train to Jammu. My husband was taken to the police
station for filling some forms.”
On reaching Jammu, she found a few relatives there. Her
husband joined her a week later and Bibi started a new chapter in her life. It
is a life not much to write home about but at least she and her family are
safe. Her husband is happy to earn ₹400 a day which helps them pay the rent of
a juggi at ₹600 per month, along with electricity and water bills.
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| Khalija Bibi, a Rohingya Muslim refugee with her family in a juggi in Jammu. |
That said, sometimes she still wakes up in the middle of
the night covered in sweat. The horrors of the past refuse to stop haunting
her, even in this new life.
A New Threat To Face
Then there is the added threat of displacement that is
hanging on the community’s head. The Modi government is “exploring” methods to
deport them to Myanmar where they are persona non grata in a move that will
only push the community to further depredation and violence.
This, after the Panthers Party first, and later the Jammu
unit of the BJP, called for the deportation of Rohingya Muslims and
Bangladeshis living in Jammu. The reason: Hindu Dogra majority of Jammu fear
they will be swamped by Muslims. The presence of Rohingya Muslims so close to
the border with Pakistan is also cited as a reason.
However, according to J&K Chief Minister Mehbooba
Mufti, no Rohingya Muslim was found to be involved in militancy-related
incidents.
“Seventeen FIRs have been registered against 38 Rohingyas
for various offences, including illegal border crossing,” the chief minister said.
“A total 5,743 Myanmarese are living in the state, almost all of them in
Jammu,” Mufti had said in the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly in January this year.
The Panthers Party is not mollified. It has put up
hoardings all over Jammu warning the government that if the Centre doesn’t take
steps to deport Rohingya Muslims from Jammu, it would. “Their high presence in
‘the city of temples’ is an attempt to disintegrate India,” warns Prof Bhim
Singh, Panthers Party Supremo.
Traders of Jammu have also jumped into the fray. A
traders body has even threatened to “identify and kill them” if the government
fails to deport Rohingya Muslims.
As an upcoming economic power committed to achieving
Global Sustainable Goals, India’s role in providing aid to the displaced
Rohingya Muslims is crucial. The government must take remedial steps necessary
towards delivering justice to the Rohingyas. For this, India not only needs to
put an end to the rampant discrimination being faced by Rohingya women in the
country, but to go that extra mile to eliminate all forms of violence against
them. This can only happen by strengthening India’s institutions of democracy
and by actively seeking justice for the community at both the national and
international levels. It is also in India’s interest to reduce all forms of
violence and work towards finding lasting solutions to conflict, most notably
by putting diplomatic pressure on the Myanmar government to take remedial steps
necessary towards delivering justice to the Rohingyas.
India has shared a cordial relationship with Myanmar ever
since the Treaty of Friendship was signed between the two. With the formation
of the new government led by Aung San Suu Kyi in 2015 and India’s aspirations
in South East Asia, things sure have become complicated. But by taking a
non-friendly stand against the refugees, the country is going against its
commitment to finding a long-term solution to the conflict and its promise of
protecting the Rohingyas from further crime and exploitation. It is not too
late to correct this grave error and to stand on the right side of history.
Safeena Wani is a Srinagar-based independent journalist
and a member of 101Reporters.com, a pan-India network of grassroots reporters.