The Rohingya Threat: 

The Rohingya Threat: 

Context

• Myanmar’s army claimed that it had discovered a mass grave containing the bodies of 28 Hindus, including women and children, in violence-affected Rakhine state, blaming the killings on Muslim Rohingya militants.

What is in the news?

• Times Now revealed that about 300 Rohingya abducted 100 Hindus on August 25, eliminated 92 of them and forcibly converted the eight surviving women to Islam.
• Around 30,000 Hindus and Buddhists have been displaced by the violence.

What has posing threat to India’s national security?

• The two back-to-back disclosures confirmed India’s worst fears that Pakistan-based terror groups have infiltrated the Rohingya and pose a grave threat to national security.
• Inputs from security agencies indicate the involvement of some Rohingya in illegal activities including fund mobilisation through hawala channels, human trafficking and procurement of fake Indian identity documents.
• Rohingya with militant backgrounds have been found to be active as far as Jammu, Delhi, Mewat and Hyderabad.
• Intelligence inputs also indicate that the nefarious designs of the ISI and ISIS include not only using the Rohingya to stir communal violence and destabilise the Northeast but also a serious potential of violence by radicalised Rohingya against the country’s Buddhist citizens.

What can be its consequences?

• From a purely economic point of view, with its challenges of population and meeting their basic requirements, the country would be hard-pressed to handle such a major influx of illegal immigrants.
• Pumping in more resources to cater to the illegal immigrants would only serve to deprive legitimate Indian citizens, which could result in social tensions.