Various Muslim organisations under the banner of All India Muslim Masjlis-e-Mushawarat (AIMMM) staged a protest in the national capital on 9 April againstthe persecution, sustained violence and killings of the Rohingya Muslims,leaving thousands of them homeless and wandering in search of safe roof in and outside the country.
The protest march was scheduled to reach Myanmar Embassy at Chanakyapuri but the bus carrying protestors from AbulFazl Enclave was taken in control of police on the outskirt of Chanakyapuri.The police eventually stopped the protestors at Nehru Museum, near Chanakyapuri police station and then forced the protestors to hold their protest outside Chanakyapuri police station instead of Myanmar Embassy.
Dr.Zafarul Islam Khan, president AIMMM, while addressing the protestors, who were holding placards and shouting slogans to voice their resentment, said they wanted to hold a peaceful protest outside Myanmar Embassy, but the Delhi police forced them to protest outside Chanakyapuri police station. “We strongly condemn the Delhi police for denying permission to hold a symbolic protest before the Myanmar Embassy,” he said. He also said that if the Citizenship Law of 1832 is applicable to one and all in Myanmar then it is most likely that the entire country would become empty because on such criterion hardly anybody would be in a position to prove his or her citizenship.
The maltreatment of Rohingya Muslims began way back in the 1960s. Under a bizarre law in 1982, they were stripped of their citizenship and were asked to prove that their ancestors lived in this country way back in 1832. Mohammad Ahmad, SecretaryJamaat-e-Islami Hind, while addressing the protestors, said it is strange to note that even the so-called champion of the democratic process in Myanmar, Aung San Suu Kyihas got double standard in raising the voice of the oppressed community in Burma.He also asked the world community to rise up to the occasion and stand by Rohingya Muslims in their critical times.“This is the need of the hour,” he stressed.
Dr.SQR Ilyas, General Secretary Welfare Party of India, said the situation in Myanmar for Rohingya Muslims can be equated with that of Palestine and it is really painful that Muslim countries have become mute spectators to the sufferings of the Muslims in Myanmar.