Pak Rohingya leaders rope in JuD to take up their cause

NEW DELHI: Prominent Dubai and Pakistan-based Rohingya leaders have enlisted the support of Lashker-e-Taiba affliate Jamaat ud Dawah to espouse the cause of Rohingya settlers in Pakistan and other countries including India, according to latest intelligence reports. In fact, JuD offshoot Falah-e-Insaniyat is allegedly collecting donations from across Pakistan to provide relief material and medical aid to Rohingya immigrants.

Firdous Sheikh, the Dubai-based president of Rohingya Federation of Arakan, had visited Pakistan last month to attend a seminar organised by NGO Al-Khidmat Foundation Pakistan (AKFP) in Manshera, PoK, and later a similar event in Islamabad, in support of Rohingya Muslims.

During this visit, he met Naveed Qamar, JuD 'amir' based in Karachi, along with Noor Hussain, Pak-based leader of Rohingya Solidarity Organisation and President, Burmese Muslim Welfare Organisation. Naveed informed them that two units of JuD offshoot Falah-e-Insaniyat Foundation (FIF) each were functioning in Teknaf, Bangladesh and Indonesia, where relief material and medical facilities were being provided to Rohingya refugees. Besides, FIF has recently started a drive to collect donations for the cause of Rohingyas across Pakistan.

Pursuant to Firdous Sheikh's efforts, Pakistani NGO Al-Khidmat Foundation is reportedly planning to consult other Muslim organisations to form a joint wing, proposed to be named as Rohingya Task Force (RTF). RTF will exclusively monitor the condition of Rohingya Muslims residing in Myanmar and other countries. RTF, Indian agencies say, may carry out a drive to collect donations across Pakistan in the name of Rohingyas for sending the same to refugees residing in Myanmar and Bangladesh.

Agencies here have taken note of the efforts by Rohingya groups to raise the cause of Rohingya immigrants at forums in PoK, particularly as Jammu happens to have the largest concentration of Rohingya immigrants. The home ministry had in an advisory sent to the states in August, warned of "security challenges posed to the country" by illegal influx of Rohingyas from Rakhine state of Myanmar. At a meeting in Kolkata last week, Union home minister Rajnath Singh spoke of the threat to internal security posed by some illegal immigrants having links with extremist groups.

Firdous Sheikh's Pakistani visit started with his attending a seminar on Rohingya Muslims at Manshera, PoK, on November 22. The event was jointly organised by AKFB and Hazara University, Manshera. He reportedly appealed to the people of Pakistan to continue extending support to their Rohingyas 'brethern'. A day later, he was seen at a seminar organised at University of Islamabad, also to discuss the Rohingya issue.

Firdous later had a meeting with Noor Hussain, during which the latter complained that while Pakistan on the one hand was rallying with Rohingyas and collecting donations for their cause, it was not doing enough about the pitiable conditions they were living in.

Noor Hussain asked Firdous to take up the issue of 'atrocities' and 'discrimination' of Rohingyas in Myanmar with Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and demand that they be given protection by the UN so that they are not forced to flee Myanmar.

Noor Hussain, intelligence sources told TOI, introduced Er. Firdous to JuD 'amir' Naveed Qamar.

Firdous had earlier also attended a seminar at Islamabad during January 2016, which was organized by Pak based Rohingya leader Sheikh Noor-ul-Islam to seek support of JuD and Jamat-e-Islami, Pakistan for Rohingya Muslims.