Srinagar: Jammu and Kashmir has been clouded by a new controversy that is fraught with dangerous ramifications and could generate mistrust and hate between its Hindu-majority Jammu and Muslim-majority Kashmir Valley regions.
Jammu Chamber of Commerce and Industry president Rakesh Gupta on Friday told a press conference in Srinagar that if the government fails to deport all Rohingya Muslims (of Myanmar) and Bangladeshi nationals from Jammu within one month and book the people on whose land these foreigners have settled under the state’s stringer Public Safety Act, it would launch an “identify and kill” campaign against them.
He said there was nothing wrong in taking such action against these people as they were involved in drug trafficking and other criminal and anti-social activities.
He claimed that the threat perception from these Bangladeshis and Rohingyas “who are criminals” has been increasing. “These settlers are criminals and drug traffickers, who were disowned by their own country and we seek their deportation because the JCCI is committed to protecting the interests of the people at large in the state as a part of social corporate responsibility,” Mr Gupta said.
He added that neither the J&K government is signatory to any United Nation’s treaty nor Article 370 allows illegal foreign settlers for any permanent settlement in the state.
Earlier, Mr Gupta had said the presence of these refugees in Jammu was part of a “sinister campaign” by “unseen forces” to change the demography of the region by settling a Muslim population from foreign lands.
But it is his “identify and kill” threat that evoked sharp reaction and condemnation by the political, social and trade organisations in the Valley.
They have alleged that Bangladeshi and Rohingya refugees are being condemned in such fashion and even threats openly issued to them on false and fabricated grounds “only because they are Muslims”.
“How can you use words like ‘identify and kill’ in a civilised society and what is stopping the government to file an FIR into this irresponsible statement which has come from a reputed business lobby in Jammu?” said Muhammad Yasin Khan, chairman of Srinagar-based Kashmir Economic Alliance.
He said if JCCI feels unsafe because of few thousand Rohingyas and Bangladeshi Muslims, why was it was silent over the issue of West Pakistan refugees? The Kashmir Chamber of Commerce and Industry also condemned the remark.
