The status of Rohingyas is currently a very hotly debated topic in India. It is speculated that there are about 40,000 illegal Rohingyas illegally residing in the country even without any proper registration with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

As a result they have elicited a very divided opinion. A section of the Indian society including the Indian government have time and again reiterated that Rohingyas are illegal immigrants who need to be deported by law. While another section comprising of human rights activists and the so called eminent citizens is trying to challenge this stance by citing compassionate grounds.

One of the main reasons being cited as to why this “compassion” angle might be detrimental is that, it has been reported that the Rohingyas are being radicalised by various terror outfits, as a result of which, they might become a serious security threat for the country.

We had in the past reported how this process had already began in 2013, with reports claiming that the Lashkar-e-Taiba was radicalising the Rohingya youths. It was later found in 2014 that a Rohingya Muslim was arrested in connection with the Burdwan blast. Later a foreign terrorist gunned down by security forces in South Kashmir also turned out to be a Myanmar national.

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Now this whole Rohingya terror angle has somewhat been cemented by reports about Samiun Rahman, a key Al Qaeda recruiter being arrested while he was allegedly in the process of recruiting the Rohingyas.

According to the report, Rahman who hails from Bangladesh was setting up base in Delhi, Mizoram and Manipur for radicalising and recruiting Rohingyas to not only fight the Myanmar Army but also to wage war against India. Rahman in the past has waged Jihad in Aleppo, Syria after which he was sent to Bangladesh for recruiting terrorists.

He then was arrested in Bangladesh for terror financing and was released this April. Soon after his release he was contacted by an Al-Nusra commander named Mohammad Jowlani who instructed him to go to India and recruit the Rohingya refugees.

He as a result is believed to have shortlisted about 12 Rohingya refugees living in Kashmir, northeast, Delhi, Bihar and Jharkhand. The police got a tip-off about his activities about two months ago and were tracking him ever since.

Post the arrest, $2000 in cash, a 9 mm pistol, Bangladeshi sim cards and a Voter ID card in the name of Shumon Haq have been recovered from him. The police is now trying to unearth the entire Al Qaeda module which has been developed by him.