Hill concern over alleged Rohingya entry

SNS | Siliguri | April 28, 2018Fugitive Gorkha Jan Mukti Morcha (GJMM) leader Bimal Gurung on Friday claimed that he has been receiving reports from his cadres about “suspicious new people” entering and settling down in the region.

According to him, these people could be Rohingya Muslims and that they may have been allowed to settle down in the region to “dilute the Gorkhas and other communities living in this area.”

In a press release he sent in their social media group, Mr Gurung said, “The Darjeeling, Terai and Dooars touches three international boundaries of Bhutan, Nepal, Bangladesh and Tibet (China). The significance of this highly sensitive and strategic border area that connects the Indian mainland to the rest of North East India cannot be overstated. Of late, I have been getting ground reports from our cadres about suspicious movement of new people in our region, many of who reportedly do not even speak Hindi, and they fear that these people are Rohingyas, who are now being gradually pushed into our region with the intention of diluting the exisiting Gorkha, Adivasi, Rajbanshi and Indian Bengali population.”

The press release alleged that there could be sinister plans afoot to further “marginalise the original inhabitants of this land and render them homeless.” Mr Gurung further urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi and home minister Rajnath Singh to take cognizance of the situation developing in this area and do the needful.

“It has been widely acknowledged that Rohingyas pose a national security threat and it seems like certain political elements are allowing politics of vote to supersede national interests,” Mr Gurung said.

Kalimpong admin urged to do needful

Meanwhile, a leader of the Akhil Bharatiya Gorkha League and a lawyer in Kalimpong, Pratap Khati, on Friday wrote to the District Magistrate and the Superintendent of Police of Kalimpong, stating that a video of Rohingya Muslims entering Kalimpong had gone viral on social media.

“This is a threat to local inhabitants. The government of India has a clear stand about Rohingyas and their entry into Indian Territory is strictly forbidden as they are a threat to national security,” Mr Khati said in Kalimpong.

“According to the census of 1971, when Bangladesh was created, 60 lakh people entered West Bengal. If West Bengal government encouraged that in the past, we suspect that the entry made by the Rohingyas in Kalimpong on Friday also has their encouragement,” he added.

“I have written to the District Magistrate and the SP, urging them to look into the matter at the earliest, and deport any Rohingya Muslim who may have entered the region,” he added.