The sad saga of Rohingya people apparently has no end in sight. On the contrary, with each passing day, their life is becoming more miserable and uncertain. This is especially true about the Rohingya refugees who have been taking shelter in India, particularly in Indian illegally occupied Jammu region. There are approximately 40,000 Rohingya refugees in India which is the highest number after Bangladesh. [1] Of these 40,000, at least 16,500 have been recognized by the UN refugee agency.[2]
In recent years, there has been growing animosity towards these settlers. They are being accused for all sorts of crimes – from joining Kashmiri freedom fighters to facilitating alleged infiltration and from sale of narcotics to theft, Rohingya refugees have been labelled as threat to national security. As India under BJP took strides towards becoming a Hindu Rashtra, the noise against the Rohingya refugees also grew. Interestingly, the BJP supporters have been implicated in attacks on the community on number of occasions.
