The fire started in one of the shanties at 2 pm on Sunday and continued until 4 pm. By the time people could douse the fire, the whole camp was reduced to ashes.

“We were called to give fingerprints in the local SP office and everyone from the camp was there,” recalls Mohammad Alishan a grocery supplier to shops in the Rohingya slums in Nuh district.

“At around 2 pm when a few of us came back to the camp, we saw one Jhuggi on fire and gradually it spread to others. There were cylinders in Jhuggis which made the fire uncontrollable for us,” he told TwoCircles.net.

Alishan’s savings of the last six years were all destroyed and he could only save the pair of clothes he was wearing. The refugees are presently living in a tent provided by the district administration under the open sky.

“It is very hot in here. We are living in open plots. There is no relief as such apart from food and water and we don’t know how and when we will be able to construct our huts again,” Mohammad Hassan, 25 a labourer.

According to Ali Johar, who has been coordinating the relief efforts of NGOs and administration, told TwoCircles.net, “This is the second time that a Rohingya Camp has caught fire in Haryana in last two years. With the soaring temperature and refugees living in open sky amid fasting, we are going to suffer immensely in the coming days.”

He further urged the government and NGOs to come forward to help the refugees by constructing huts for them at the shortest possible time.

Repeated incidents of fire in camps
Last year in April, five huts of Rohingya refugees caught fire in Nangali gaon in Mewat district of Haryana, leading to one person being severely burnt, besides the loss of household materials. The fire had also consumed a portion of a makeshift mosque, a school, and a madrasa. In another similar incident, a fire engulfed more than 8 jhuggis of Rohingya refugees living in Bhagwati Nagar area of Jammu city.

On November 26, 2016, 80 shanties belonging to Rohingya refugees caught fire in Narwal area of Jammu district in which two minor girls and a woman were killed and three others were injured.

Last month on April 15, about 44 huts of Rohingya refugees caught fire in Kalindi Kunj area of Delhi leading to minor burn injuries to two persons besides reducing the shelters to ashes along with a complete loss of household materials. The fire which started in the early hours of that morning had also consumed a makeshift mosque and a madrasa. The camp is being rebuilt by the Zakat Foundation of India (ZFI).

Right-wing involvement raises suspicion
After a Rohingya camp in Delhi was reduced to ashes last month, a member of Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM), in a tweet claimed responsibility for the burning of the refugee camp.

On April 15, Manish Chandela, the BJYM member had replied to a tweet reporting on the fire in the camp, “Well done by our heroes.”

“Yes we burnt the houses of the Rohingya terrorists,” he had added.

Supreme Court lawyer Prashant Bhushan and president AIMMM Navaid Hamid later filed an FIR against the right wing affiliate.

“The fire in Rohingya camps is a cause of concern and there is no doubt that there is a hate environment against the Rohingya in the country created by the people affiliated to Sangh,” Navaid Hamid, president of AIMMM told TwoCircles.net.

“These fire incidents should be thoroughly investigated by the local police,” he added.

At present, there are more than 40,000 Rohingya Muslim refugees living in four Indian states: Jammu, Haryana, Rajasthan, and Delhi.

The hostility against the Rohingya refugees has been growing since the BJP came to power in centre. The narrative of Rohingya being a security threat was initially supported by the BJP unit of Jammu and Kashmir. The Regional Jammu Kashmir National Panthers Party later joined the cause.

On August 19, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs issued a circular asking all states to identify and deport illegal Rohingya immigrants.

“Illegal migrants are more vulnerable for getting recruited by terrorist organizations. Infiltration from the Rakhine State of Myanmar into Indian Territory, especially in the recent years, besides being a burden on the limited resources of the country also aggravates the security challenges posed to the country,” the document read.

The case is presently being heard in the Supreme Court of India.

Courtesy: Two Circles
 

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Bhushan posted photographs of the complaint on Twitter, captioning them, “My criminal complaint against Manish Chandela of BJYM who proudly boasted on social media that he & his associates burnt down the Rohingya camp. No action yet by @DelhiPolice to register case & arrest him & no action by BJP to remove him from party. State of rule of law under BJP”. 

Ahead of Bhushan’s complaint, the All India Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat (AIMMM), an umbrella organisation of various Muslim groups, also wrote to Delhi Police Commissioner Amulya Patnaik regarding Chandela’s alleged admission, and included screenshots of the tweets. “The open claim on social media by the culprit is a challenge to the Delhi Police and all other law enforcement agencies. The tweet was posted immediately after the fire in the refugee camp… We demand immediate arrest of Manish Chandela under appropriate sections of the IPC,” the letter said. 

Bhushan’s complaint also contains screenshots of tweets allegedly by Chandela mentioning his purported involvement in the fire. They show that on April 15, Chandela, whose Twitter handle was allegedly @CHANDELA_BJYM, responded to a tweet about the fire with the sentence “Well DONE BY OUR HEROES”. When another Twitter user asked about this, the @CHANDELA_BJYM handle replied, “Yes we burnt the houses of Rohingya terrorists”. The next day @CHANDELA_BJYM tweeted “Yes we did/And we do again” with the hashtag #ROHINGYAQUITINDIA.  

On Sunday, April 15, a massive fire broke out at Rohingya refugee camp in Kalindi Kunj in Delhi. The police had then said that the fire was caused by a short circuit. Although no casualties were reported, more than 225 Rohingya refugees lost their makeshift homes and possessions to the fire, which destroyed about 44 shanties. The fire spread rapidly, because shanties had plastic sheets to cover the makeshift shelters. Rohingya refugees informed news agencies that they lost all their possessions, including the limited money that they had since they lacked bank accounts. They also lost United Nations-issued special visas and identity cards. The Rohingya refugee camp had been established in 2012 by a non-governmental organisation; 46 Rohingya families lived there. 

On April 9, the Supreme Court had directed the Centre to submit a comprehensive status report within four weeks regarding the amenities at the two Rohingya camps in Haryana and Delhi following accusations that toilets and drinking water were not available. Chief Justice Dipak Misra headed a bench that questioned if it could hear a plea about such amenities just for the Rohingya while thousands of people in other Indian slums also lack them. Prashant Bhushan, representing the Rohingya, told the Supreme Court that they were suffering discrimination with regards to basic amenities. However, Additional Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the Centre, denied that the Rohingya were being discriminated against. The Supreme Court will discuss the issue again on May 9.  
 

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