Hyderabad: If refugees from Tibet, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka can stay in India, why not the Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar, AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi has said.

He also cited the case of Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen, who has taken shelter in India for over a decade now following threats from Islamic fundamentalists in her country.

Attacking the NDA government over its stance on Rohingyas, who are fleeing Myanmar’s violence-hit Rakhine state, he said, “Is it humane that you want to send back those who have lost everything. This is wrong.”

If Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen can take shelter in India, why not the Rohingya Muslims? he asked while addressing a gathering here late last night.

“When Taslima Nasreen became your sister, can’t Rohingya become your brother, Mr Modi,” Owaisi, the Lok Sabha member from Hyderabad, said.

The BJP government at the centre should not see the Rohingyas as Muslims but as refugees, he maintained.

“We want to tell the BJP government, don’t look at them as Muslims. They are refugees,” he said.

“India gave shelter to refugees from Tibet, those from Sri Lanka and Chakma refugees from Bangladesh,” Owaisi said.

“When it was told that they (Lankan refugees) are taking part in terror, what was done? They were shifted from one camp to another,” the All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul Muslimeen (AIMIM) leader alleged.

The Constitution of India gives right to equality and that applies to refugees as well, Owaisi said.

“The BJP government says we will send all Rohingyas back. We want to ask the Indian prime minister, under which law you will send them back, which law?” he asked.

(Agencies)

Lucknow: The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Friday announced it will contest the forthcoming municipal corporation elections in Uttar Pradesh.

Addressing a press conference in the state capital, national spokesman of the party and incharge for Uttar Pradesh Sanjay Singh said the AAP was committed to weeding out graft from the civic bodies and giving people good governance.

Stating that the people had already become fed up with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government led by Yogi Adityanath, the AAP leader said civic bodies over the years had turned into centres of graft in the state.

The party had serious intent to set things right, apart from putting an end to the exploitation of “safai karmacharis”, he said.

Elections to the 16 civic bodies in the state are likely to be held later this year. The AAP, he further informed, would waive house tax if it came to power and would ensure that people got clean drinking water.

These and other issues would be part of the party’s election manifesto.

(IANS)

Mathura: A 45-year-old sadhvi was allegedly gang-raped inside a temple complex in Barsana four days back, police said today.

The incident took place on the night of September 11 at the Sriji temple in Barsana, near Mathura.
According to the FIR, the woman was sleeping in the balcony of the temple when a watchman and another staffer forcibly took her to a secluded place and took turns raping her.

“Two police teams have been formed to nab the accused,” SP Rural, Aditya Kumar Shukla, said. He added the victim has been sent to a hospital for medical examination.

Traumatised by the incident, she initially didn’t say anything. However, she told reporters that she approached police on the evening of September 13 but no FIR was registered.

The FIR was finally lodged on September 14 on the intervention of SSP Swapnil Mamgai after word of the incident gradually started to spread.

(PTI)

Gurgaon: The Gurgaon Police has detained the Ryan International School gardener and key witness in the school boy murder case, Harpal Singh and is likely to arrests some more persons in connection with the case, a senior SIT officer said.

The Gurgaon Police’s Special Investigation Team (SIT) detained the gardener yesterday. “The SIT does not want to leave out a single piece of evidence which can be important and work as a key breakthrough for us to solve this case. With three days left for submission of charge sheet in court, we have got possible positive leads against the accused school bus conductor Ashok Kumar,” a senior SIT officer told PTI.

SIT teams yesterday searched the school here for clues to the crime while a CBSE panel also inspected the premises to examine loopholes in security arrangements. Besides Harpal Singh, the SIT has questioned 17 persons including section inchage-Anju

Dudeja, suspended acting principal-Neerja Batra, former principal Rakhi Verma, bus driver Saurabh Raghav, bus contractor Harkesh Pradhan and eight security guards. The officer said questioning of all suspects who are on the police radar whether it is the suspended school principal, senior management officials, or staff members, is being conducted.

“Some more arrests are likely to be made,” he said. The seven-year-old boy was found with his throat slit in the washroom of the school on Friday last.

(PTI)

Lucknow: BSP supremo Mayawati has urged the Centre to adopt a humanitarian approach towards thousands of Rohingya families seeking asylum in India. The government, she said, should also hold talks with governments of Myanmar and Bangladesh to resolve the problems of Rohingya Muslims.

In a statement issued today, Mayawati said, “In the bordering state of Myanmar, owing to unrest, lakhs of Rohingya Muslims have taken refuge in Bangladesh, and in some states of India. Since the approach of the Modi government is not clear, there is a situation of dilemma.”

“The Government of India must adopt a humane view as has been the tradition of India. The government should also hold talks with governments of Myanmar and Bangladesh to resolve the problems of Rohingya Muslims, so that there exodus from their country is stopped,” the former chief minister said.

Some 40,000 Rohingyas have settled in India, and 16,000 of them have received refugee documentation, the UN estimates. Minister of State for Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju had on September 5 said that Rohingyas were illegal immigrants and stood to be deported.

(Agencies)

[Mohammad Ponir Hossain/Reuters]

United Nations: UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres wants Rohingya refugees helped “regardless of politics,” his spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said Tuesday in reply to a question about India’s policy on those fleeing Myanmar.

Dujarric said that the reports about Rohingya’s plight and pictures of them fleeing were heart-rending and these are very vulnerable people and deserved to be helped.

His remarks came after India had taken strong exception to UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein’s criticism of India for wanting to deport Rohingya refugees.

“I deplore current measures in India to deport Rohingyas at a time of such violence against them in their country,” Dujarric said in Geneva on Monday.

“By virtue of customary law, its ratification of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the obligations of due process and the universal principle of non-refoulement, India cannot carry out collective expulsions, or return people to a place where they risk torture or other serious violations,” he said.

India’s Permanent Representative to the UN in Geneva, Rajiv K. Chander, called the remarks “tendentious” and based on inaccurate reports.

“Like many other nations, India is concerned about illegal migrants, in particular, with the possibility that they could pose security challenges. Enforcing the laws should not be mistaken for lack of compassion,” he said in a statement.

Dujarric said that the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has estimated that 370,000 Rohingya refugees have fled into Bangladesh since August 25.

In response to Bangladesh’s request for help, he said an aircraft chartered by the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and another donated by the United Arab Emirates have landed in Bangladesh with emergency aid for Rohingya refugees.

The supplies brought in by them will help 25,000 refugees, and more flights are planned to aid a total of 120,000 refugees, he added.

The OCHA was concerned about reports of continued violence, fires, and displacement of tens of thousands of people in Rathedaung Township in Rakhine State, Dujarric said.

Aid programmes for the Rohingya by the UN agencies and international NGOs in northern Rakhine have either been suspended or severely interrupted, but some help is being delivered by the government and through the Red Cross, he added.

(IANS)