By Mohd. Ismail Khan, TwoCircles.net,
Hyderabad: Once unknown grave of saint in the outskirts of Hyderabad is now bustling with visitors from around the city, to have a peek on the foreigners who have arrived in Hyderabad this Ramzan seeking asylum. Every Myanmar Muslim refugee taking shelter at Dargah Shah Ali Qaudri has a horror story to tell, about their loss of loved ones or the extraordinary difficulties they are facing by roaming in India for refugee status.
21 year old Noor-ul Ameen looks quite distressed sitting on the veranda of the dargah answering doubts and questions put by local Muslims, he is taking pain to explain every one approaching him with the same question, why in the world they chose Hyderabad down to south as a place for asylum?
Noor has simple answer for everyone: “Because people in Kolkata said go to Hyderabad it is a Muslim city where Muslims are rich and even politically powerful and can help us in any way.” And his answer doesn’t seem contrary to the support they are receiving from local Muslims since the news has spread like a wildfire about Rohingya Muslim refugees and the pathetic condition they are living in. Dargah Shah Ali Qadri has now become a center for the relief work for nearly 350 Rohingya Muslims from Fajar to Isha prayers — loaded vehicles with relief materials are arriving in the dargah to facilitate basic amenities to refugees.
But according to Syed Mohd Imam Quadri, Mutawali of the dargah police have also become a frequent visitor keeping a tab on every moving refugee. But he believes the recent visit of many high profile Muslim politicians including Zahid Ali Khan and M.I.M leaders and distribution of relief material as manifestation of their political support to the refugees have put the police to the other end.
Rohingyan Muslims showing their persecution pics
Mohd Imam Qadri also observed that none of these refugees are taking occupation as beggars to fulfill their needs; instead he said all of them are doing manual labor work in the construction sites, and majority of them have taken rooms on rent with help of local Muslims, “they all are sangfroid and can stand on their own feet, they are just hoping for a refugee card from the Indian govt.” he asserts.
Fayaz Ali Salam is a Hafiz-e-Quran. He used to teach in a local Madrasa in Rakhine before his family members were allegedly killed by Buddhists monks. He said, “Monks armed with deadly weapons entered our village, they first burned down all our religious structures including the madrasa where I used to teach. Then they attacked Muslims indiscriminately. They killed my father and my brother in law in front of my eyes, I ran away from my village and we travelled 8 days in forests crossing Bangladesh border till we reached India.”
Many veiled women also sat near the dargah taking care of their small kids, and collecting whatever relief material get into their hands. Rehmana is one among them looking after her three small kids – the youngest among them is 1 year old Ayub. She claims her husband and in laws were killed in their native village and lost her parents in Bangladesh and now she is with her younger brother hoping for some relief in their new rendezvous.
Mohd Ayub, another Rohingya Muslim worked in Kolkata as a manual labor for 2 months before moving to Hyderabad, he said he along with some of his 3 family members are sharing a room with other refugees and desperately looking for a job in the city.
Majority of refugees are finding it difficult to communicate with local Muslims due to the obvious language barrier, but Mohd Arafat, another Rohingya Muslim who is living in Hyderabad for past 8 months are helping to translate their language in his broken Hindi.
Several Muslims from across the city are visiting these refugee camps, to inspect about their authenticity as Rohingya Muslim before taking any step for charity. Shabir Ahmed, a sexagenarian is quick enough to show his Mayanmar identity card to answer any question thrown at him questioning his identity. In his native language but in a broken voice he explains to the locals how his family was massacred and how much difficulties he had borne for seeking asylum in India.
Mohd Khuber, a 12 year old Rohingya Muslim said he doesn’t have any idea where his whole family is, he is hardly able to pronounce the spelling of Kolkata or the present city he is living in, he just said he is following his fellow villagers.
28 year old Mohd Attaullah seems to be only politically speaking man among Rohingyan refugees, he rubbishes the claim of Myanmar govt. that riot was started as a reaction to rape and murder of a Buddhist girl by Rohingya Muslims. He said, “This incident was just created as a rumor no one knows the authenticity of it, they planned our persecution long back.” According to Attaullah Muslim life in Myanmar was a virtual prison from the beginning and Muslims were denied basic civil rights. He said, “They didn’t allow us to study, Muslims were not allowed admissions in the local schools, we were not having permission to run our own schools. Muslims were arrested and killed by Myanmar police with mere suspicion.”
Attaullah also criticized Myanmar pro-democracy leader Aung san Suu Kyi for her silence on Rohingyan persecution in their country. He said, “In the beginning Suu kyi was supportive of us, she used to speak for minority rights in our country. But later when she saw Buddhists got openly against us she took back her support and kept silent on our genocide, she doesn’t want to upset vast Buddhist majority in the country by taking our side. Maybe she got colored into Myanmar politics or maybe she was like this opportunist from the beginning and just showed her real color now.
Refugee showing UNHCR card
Nearly everyone in the refugee camp claims to be fasting in this holy month expecting a divine intervention to their sorrows. These 350 Rohingyan Muslims are segregated in different but near corner areas of the city like Bahadurpura, Balapur and Kishanbagh. Local mosques in those areas are arranging Sehar and Iftar for these fasting refugees, in addition to this many devout Muslims are landing bulk of iftar material in the Dargah headquarter from where items are distributed among every Rohingyan Muslim refugee.
These hundreds of refugees might get temporary help during this holy month, but what lies ahead for them in future is just uncertainty. With government not giving any word on the issue of refugee status to them, local police keeping a tight vigil waiting in patience for Muslim holy month to end, and the latest Assam riots in the sight. It seems difficult for these Rohingyan Muslims to get refugee status and asylum as it was provided to the hundreds of Tibetan Buddhists by the Indian govt. in this Muslim dominated city for decades.