NEW DELHI: Refuting allegations against the Rohingyas community, petitioners in a case Friday filed their response to the Centre’s stand of calling them a national security threat, before the Supreme Court.
Mohammed Salimullah, the main petitioner in the case, countered claims made by the government in its affidavit filed earlier this week and said, “The government cannot make a blanket claim that all Rohingya refugees have terror links and there being a fear of them being radicalised by terror recruits operating in India. The government must conduct an individual refugee determination of all Rohingya in India with the assistance of the NHRC and the UNHRC.”
“Any individual case of involvement in militancy may be dealt with by the government in accordance with the law of the land but by this there cannot be a general assumption that the entire Rohingya refugee community in India is involved in militancy-related activities,” the affidavit reads.
The affidavit also takes exception to the Centre painting “all Rohingyas under the same brush, without any substantial evidence of their being a threat to national security. It is also noted that not a single FIR has been lodged against a person from the Rohingya community in a way that would threaten national security”.
“In the case of Sri Lankan refugees, the government had put in place a screening mechanism to identify those associated with LTTE (India had declared it a terrorist organisation) or having a criminal record and had put them in special camps but not Rohingyas.”