Concerned about information of alleged ‘Rohingya settlement camps’ at some border areas in north Bengal in Kalimpong district, Darjeeling MP and Union minister of state for drinking water and sanitation SS Ahluwalia has requested Union home minister Rajnath Singh to take initiatives to carry out investigations.
The Bharatiya Janta Yuva Morcha (BJYM) had informed Mr Ahluwalia through an email on 2 May on the “migration of Rohingya” in areas under the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA). In the letter, the BJYM mentioned that the Rohingya refugees had migrated to areas like Bhalukhop, Delo and its surroundings, Lava forest area and the Kalimpong-Rangpo highway.
It also informed him that they had received reports of their presence in Darjeeling, Kurseong and Mirik. “I have received information based on the letter of the BJYM on the presence of Rohingya refugees in some parts of the Hills. Settlement camps have been set up in the sensitive chicken-neck area. Accordingly, I wrote to Union home minister Rajnath Singh to have the matter investigated and urged him to undertake proper measures to ensure that no such illegal settlements are allowed to come up,” Mr Ahluwalia said over the phone from Delhi today.
In the letter to the home minister, he says, “As you are aware, Darjeeling district and Dooars regions share three international borders, all of which are porous, and settlement of Rohingyas in this sensitive region can pose a serious national security threat.”
While there was a clamour earlier that some Rohingya Muslims had entered Kalimpong town, chairman of the GTA Board of Administrators, Binoy Tamang, had refuted reports and said that the group of Muslims who had reached Kalimpong were pilgrims from Kolkata and that it was a common practice for such groups to visit different mosques across India as part of their studies on their religion.
Mr. Tamang had also claimed that such hullabaloo had been created to by keeping the 2019 general elections in mind and to disturb the now peaceful Hills.