NEW DELHI: Union Home Ministry is mulling over a proposal from the Jammu and Kashmir Government to deport an estimated 10,000 Rohingyas living illegally in the State.
The issue of deportation of the Rohingya Muslims was discussed at a high-level meeting convened by Union Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi and attended by Jammu and Kashmir Chief Secretary Braj Raj Sharma and Director General of Police S P Vaid.
"The Ministry is exploring ways and means to identify and deport the Rohingya Muslims from the State," said a Union Home Ministry official after the meet.
Most of the Rohingya Muslims are settled in Jammu and Samba districts of Jammu and Kashmir and came to the state over the years after entering India illegally through either Indo-Bangladesh border or Indo-Myanmar border.
An estimated 50,000 Rohingyas are living in different parts of the country including in Hyderabad and Haryana, all of whom have entered illegally.
The role of Rohingyas in insidious activities has been flagged by the security agencies. Few of the accused persons were allegedly involved in the terror attack at Buddhist shrine in Bodh Gaya.
The move comes after the renewed bid by the Pakistan-based terror Lashkar-e-Taiba to exploit the Rohingyas for carrying out terror activities in India and Bangladesh. The Rohingyas’ role in smuggling and drug trafficking in the Northeast for raising funds for terror activities has also been underscored by the Intelligence agencies.
Rohingyas originally belong to Rakhine province of Myanmar and many of them have left the country after the crackdown against the community by the agencies there.
Recent inputs also suggest a large number of Rohingyas have been radicalised by the LeT and has become a major security concern in Bangladesh. LeT chief Hafeez Saeed has been vocally supportive of the community’s alleged grievances and has held several camps over the past few years.
Saeed has also been instrumental in creating an umbrella organisation there to radicalise more people from the community for pursuing the wider terror agenda of the outfit in the region, an official said.