Protesting Rohingya refugees tear-gassed at detention center in Kashmir

By Hilal Mir

SRINAGAR, Jammu and Kashmir (AA) – Police used tear gas on Tuesday to quell a protest by dozens of Rohingya refugees being held in a jail in Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir, relatives of the detainees said.

A few Rohingya women told reporters in Jammu that a video circulated widely on Tuesday showed tear gas canisters being tossed into a group of Rohingya refugees at Hiranagar jail in Jammu who went on hunger strike this morning. In the video, a man could be seen pointing to his injured ankle.

They said the community is worried about the condition of their loved ones as the jail authorities have not yet issued any statement regarding the incident.

In Feb. 2021, some 150 Rohingya refugees living in Jammu were placed in a “holding center” set up inside the jail on the orders of the Indian government that regards the Rohingya, who are Muslim, as illegal aliens and a security risk.

The government has ordered that thousands of them living in scattered settlements be identified and repatriated.

The kin of the detained refugees have been demanding that either all of them should be released and deported or their relatives who are living in the region should also be detained.

“We want to know what sin we have committed,” a Rohingya named Musheed Aalam told Anadolu.

“In some instances, while parents are incarcerated, their children are left outside and at the mercy of strangers,” he said, adding that “when we were hounded out of Burma (Myanmar), we hoped India would be a large country and no harm would come our way. But we were wrong.”

Because they only have access to the video that is in circulation, Musheed said the community is concerned about what actually happened at the jail. Even his wife is worried about one of the prisoners, her father, who is 70 years old, he added.

“The video doesn't say everything. We don't know what happened afterward. Our people are in distress inside and we are anxious outside. There seems to be no end to our miseries,” Musheed said.

- Persecuted people

According to Amnesty International, more than 750,000 Rohingya refugees, mostly women, and children, fled Myanmar and crossed into Bangladesh after Myanmar forces launched a crackdown on the minority Muslim community in August 2017.

Since Aug. 25, 2017, more than 24,000 Rohingya Muslims have been killed by Myanmar’s state forces, according to a report by the Ontario International Development Agency (OIDA).

More than 34,000 Rohingya were thrown into fires, over 114,000 more were beaten, and as many as 18,000 Rohingya women and girls were raped by Myanmar’s army and police, said the OIDA report, titled Forced Migration of Rohingya: The Untold Experience.

Over 115,000 Rohingya homes were burned and 113,000 others vandalized, the report added.

Most are in ramshackle camps on the border with Bangladesh.