Pakistan May Exploit Radicalisation Among Rohingya Muslims, India Warns Myanmar

India has warned Myanmar that Pakistan’s intelligence agencies and radical outfits supported by the rogue state’s military are trying to exploit radical sections of the Rohingya community to harm India, Hindustan Times reported on Tuesday. India has asked Myanmar to find a political solution to the conflict, saying that the radical Rohingyas are like a “ticking bomb” with Pakistan’s hand on the trigger.

The message was conveyed to Myanmar’s national security adviser (NSA) U Thaung Tun, who was in India last week. “We told the NSA that this issue is a major threat. Rohingya radicals are being abetted by Lashkar. This will have consequences for the region. And we have advised them to find a political solution to the issue soon,” Hindustan Times quoted an official as saying. Thaung Tun held discussions with NSA Ajit Doval and officials from ministries of Defence and External Affairs.

The Indian official quoted by the newspaper informed that India has adequate proof to say that Lashkar-e-Taiba is trying to use Rohingyas through its “so-called charitable avatar and then through frontmen” in the Rakhine state in Myanmar.

Indian security agencies have said that Pakistan used Rohingya radicals in the blasts that rocked Mahabodhi Temple in Bodh Gaya on 7 July 2013. According to the arrested Indian Mujahideen suspect Mohammed Umair Siddiqui, it was done to avenge killings of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar. The presence of over 14,000 registered Rohingya refugees in the country, mostly settled in Jammu and Kashmir, makes it easier to use them against India.