Traffickers could sneak Rohingya Muslims into India via sea, intelligence agencies say

With the security tightened along India-Myanmar border, intelligence agencies have warned that the Rohingyas may use sea routes to sneak into the country with the help of professional traffickers.

Rohingya Muslims have been fleeing Myanmar since 2012 following persecution by state agencies and their feud with local Buddhist population. India too has been affected with the largescale migration, with about 40,000 Rohingyas living at camps and shanties in Assam, West Bengal, Jammu, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi.

"The Rohingiyas are desperate to sneak into Indian areas such as Bengal. And organised traffickers are likely to use sea routes from Myanmar and Bangladesh to push them into India," senior intelligence officials told Mail Today. "All security agencies concerned have to remain guarded against any such attempt."

The officials said the traffickers involved with the Rohingiyas may use their experience in the Mediterranean where they used large boats and high-speed rafts to send refugees fleeing Syria into Europe in large numbers. These routes were also used by a chunk of Islamic State supporters also, they pointed out.

There have been sporadic incidents where some Rohingiya famlies tried to sneak into Indian territory using the sea route but such attempts were few and at a much smaller scale. "The story could be different this time, and much organized," the intelligence official said.

The agencies are also keeping an eye on the movement from the southern part of Myanmar from where the Rohingiyas may try to enter the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and occupy the various uninhabited islands there.

Already, the Border Security Force and Assam Rifles have increased their vigil on the border with Myanmar to prevent the influx of the Rohingiyas and most of them are diverted to Bangladesh, which has also imposed harsh restrictions on them.

The intelligence sources also said that the traffickers and Rohingiyas are keen to reach the state of Bengal as the government is more sympathetic to the displaced and has already announced that it would provide shelter to the refugees from Myanmar.

'SECURITY THREAT'

However, the Centre has raised a red flag on security threat from Rohingiyas. The government is developing mechanism to deport around 40,000 Rohingyas living in the country illegally. Minister of state for home affairs Kiren Rijiju stated the government's resolve in this regard more than once.

The officials point out that after the war broke out in Syria and Iraq, more than two million refugees sneaked into Europe with most of them packed up in boats provided to them by human traffickers. Once the refugees touched shores in Europe, they spread out across the continent with the help of human traffickers.

Since the influx, the number of incidents related to Islamic terrorism have gone up across the continent with countries including France, England and Belgium being the biggest victims and stories of refugees rioting in different cities coming out every day, the officials pointed out.

Reports suggest that outfits like Al Qaeda, ISIS and Jamaat-ud Dawa (a front of the Lashkar-e-Taiba) of Hafiz Saeed sent their workers to Rohingya camps in Indonesia, Bangladesh and, possibly, India.

These groups entered Rohingya camps on the pretext of providing humanitarian help, but their intention, intelligence agencies suspect, is to identify gullible youths and recruit them as jihadi operators for their outfits.

In Myanmar, Rohingiyas have their terrorists groups such as the Aqa Mul Mujahideen (AMM), which is believed to be an offshoot of the Harkat-ul Jihad Islami-Arakan (HuJI-A) and the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army.

India has also extended humanitarian assistance for Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh by flying down food and other essential items to the neighbour to help it deal with the huge influx of Rohingiyas.

India has also dispatched relief material to Bangaldesh be delivered in multiple consignments under 'Operation Insaniyat' using its C-17 heavy lift aircraft.

Rohingya tribals from the western Rakhine have settled in Jammu, Hyderabad, Haryana, UP, Delhi-NCR and Rajasthan in India and according to the UN estimates, out of 40,000 Rohingyas, who settled in India , 16,000 have received refugee documentation.

Rohingya immigrants Md Salimullah and Md Shaqir, have moved the Supreme Court challenging the government's decision to deport illegal Rohingya Muslim immigrants back to Myanmar.