MHA seeks spatial profile, PDP stands with Rohingyas
TNN Bureau. Updated: 9/21/2017 1:26:24 AM
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JAMMU: Even as the Ministry of Home Affairs has asked the Divisional Administration in Jammu to furnish details on terror and separatist links of Rohingya Muslims, the ruling Peoples Democratic Party has said that it stands with the Myanmar refugees.
"We stand for Rohingya Muslims. It is a human issue and we treat it as a human issue," said Education Minister and senior PDP leader Altaf Bukhari. Bukhari said this while rebutting and disowning the statement of his party's MLC, Vikramaditya Singh, who had strongly called for immediate deportation of Rohingyas.
In a related development, the Ministry of Home Affairs has asked the Divisional administration in Jammu to furnish spatial profile of Rohingya Muslims in Jammu along with details of their possible links with terrprists and separatists. The MHA has also sought details about the NGOs, civil society groups, human rights groups and religious organisations supporting the Rohingyas in any manner.
In Srinagar, senior PDP leader and Minister for Education Syed Altaf Bukhari told reporters that there should be no politics over the issue.
"See, as far as the statement from our MLC (Member of Legislative Council) which has come from Jammu is concerned, which I also read, could be his personal view and that is not the party line," Bukhari said.
"Our (PDP) stand is that this is a human issue and should be dealt humanely. We don't want to do any politics over it," Bukhari said when asked to comment on the remarks of BJP general secretary Ram Madhav yesterday.
Madhav had said Rohingyas pose a security threat to the country and rejected the view that they should be allowed to stay in India on humanitarian grounds.
Bukhari said none other than Kashmiris know how to stand for those who have been forced out of their homes.
"We Kashmiris, be it Kashmiri Muslims or Pandits, have shown we stand for each other and no one other than us holds that much of sympathy for those (Rohingyas)," the J&K minister said.
He said the people of Kashmir stand for all the people who have been forced to leave their homes.
"We stand for Rohingya Muslims. It is a human issue and we treat it as a human issue," he said.