Omar bats for Rohingya, says send Tamil refugees back

Srinagar: Lashing out at people for demanding deportation of Rohingya Muslims from the country, former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has asked if those plugging their India were going to demand that the Tibetan Government in exile leave Indian shores immediately. "Will Tamil refugees from Sri Lanka be sent back as punishment for Rajiv Gandhi's assassination," he further asked.

“His holiness the Dalai Lama is going to find himself unwelcomes in his adopted home unless of course this xenophobia is selective,” Mr Abdullah, who is the working president of National Conference (NC), wrote on micro-blogging site twitter. “So are those plugging their India for Indians line going to demand that the Tibetan Government in exile leaves Indian shores immediately,” he asked in his tweet. “And while they are at it will Tamil refugees from Sri Lanka be sent back as punishment for Rajiv Gandhi's assassination,” he added.

Meanwhile, hitting out at the Centre for asserting in the SC that Rohingya Muslims living in the country pose as a serious threat to the national security, the former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister said that no such intelligence reports came up for discussion in Unified Headquarters meetings before 2014, when he was heading the Unified headquarters as Chief Minister. “This threat, at least in J&K, is a post 2014 development. No such intelligence reports ever came up for discussion in Unified HQ meetings,” Mr Abdullah tweeted. The Centre yesterday had asserted in the apex court that the Rohingya Muslims were ‘illegal’ immigrants in India and their stay posed ‘serious national security ramifications’.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCR) has criticised the Centre’s plan to deport Rohingyas, saying ‘India cannot carry out collective expulsions, or return people to a place where they risk torture or other serious violations’. However, the NDA Government rebutted the allegations, saying ‘enforcing its laws to deal with possible security threats posed by illegal migrants cannot be seen as a lack of compassion’. Meanwhile, Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju yesterday said the Government's stand to deport Rohingya refugees was in the national interest. (UNI)