City Embraced, City Disowned

Syed Aamir Sharief Qadri
From the top of my house I can see people living in tents or in the houses made of mud. I can heard the cries of their children crying for food and milk. Seeing them in abject poverty I questioned myself. Is migration such a horrible thing? Is it better to die than to migrate to another place? Yes you got my point. I am talking about Rohingyas. Those who live in the vicinity of Jammu city. When Rohingyas were persecuted and driven away from Rakhine state, Myanmar. They moved on different directions and settled in many countries. Of which large number are settled in Bangladesh. Some few thousand Rohingyas also came to India. Those who settled in India cry for only one thing… “Don’t send us back, please. They will kill us. We will not survive this time. We don’t need anything but peace. It is ok don’t give us citizenship. But let us stay here for sometime. We will leave when things get better”. Most of the Rohingyas in Jammu city live in Muslim dominated areas, such as, Bathindi, Sunjwan, Narwal etc. Amid big houses they live in slums. Refugee camps are worst places to live in. Using one small tent for multitasking, i.e. cooking, sleeping, dining, etc. is beyond my imagination. I find it difficult to adjust things in my well built spacious house. I wonder how could they manage all these activities in a single tent. “I am Rohingia. Once I lived in the country of Lord Buddha (Myanmar). But unfortunately I was expelled from there because I am Muslim. Then I came to the country of Ram (India). Here too Ram is unhappy with me. Because in 1947 this subcontinent got divided between Allah (Pakistan) and Ram (India). From then after only the Ram bakhts are aloud to live here”. This centuries old religious tussle have left Rohingyas with no choice. Where would they go now? They even don’t find peace in Muslim world. In the name of humanity they face humility every day and every where. Wearing a religious masks people have become demons here. The children of Rohingyas wear dull and patched clothes. They walk bare footed. They take both polluted air and water. They wander lane by lane collecting bottles of plastic, polythene etc. I met a small Rohingia girl playing with mud. I told her what are you doing and she replied, uncle “I can’t buy toys. I don’t have money. That is why I make terracotta toys”. Since their migration to Jammu Rohingyas live in continues emergency. They feared further persecution either with the hands of radical Hindu groups or with governments changing attitude towards them. Rohingyas get much effected due to destabilized political conditions in J&K. Every time they fear devastation. Whether it be Sunjwan military camp attack, Pulwama attack, or the abrogation of article 35A/article 370, CAA, NPR, NRC. It is difficult for them to adjust after such kind of incidents took place.
Prophet Muhammad (SAW) and his companions were also forced by infidels of Mecca to migrate to Madina. But after migration they found peace there. They were received with great pomp and show. People of Madina (Ansar) went miles away with their children singing devotional songs to receive their beloved prophet. While visiting Rohingya camps, in Jammu, I met number of Rohingyas, of all age groups, men and women, children and adult, I heard repeatedly only one thing from all of them…. Is there any single Ansar living close to us? We are eagerly waiting for him to come? Muslims are many but none of them is having a character of ‘Ansar’. It is heartfelt to hear people in their chocked voices saying…”We came here, thought that, India is a Secular democratic country. It will provide us shelter and secure the future of our children. But ‘No’ we were wrong. We receive a threat calls from every quarter. Many of us migrated again to unknown places due to this fear. Our Prophet migrated once in his life time but we are continuously migrating from place to place”. Talking about CAA, NPR and NRC Rohingyas are clear at their heart… “that minorities particularly Indian Muslims are not safe here. There is no scope for us to stay here permanently. If the people whose ancestors are living here for centuries are asked to leave India. Then guess does we exist anymore”. Rohingyas are not the citizen of India. They have to go back. My appeal to the people of J&K and both the center and state governments is to cooperate with Rohingyas till their safe return to their respective country. As they lack the basic facilities of living. Living in poor huts they find it difficult to defeat the extreme weather conditions of the region.
Attention Please :I personally witness all these things that I mentioned in the above article. I held a door to door survey to collect more and more information from Rohingyas. The only objective behind writing this article is to aware people (particularly Muslim community) and government about Rohingyas. They need immediate attention from all of us. Let us help God by serving others.
( The author is a freelancer. Views are his own, [email protected])