Increase vigil along borders, foil Rohingya incursion: Govt to forces

Security forces deployed along India's borders with Bangladesh and Myanmar have been alerted by the government to remain extra vigil to foil attempts by Rohingya Muslims to enter India, a home ministry official said.

In a communication, the home ministry asked the Border Security Force (BSF), deployed along the 4,096-km Indo- Bangladesh border, and the Assam Rifles, which guards the 1,643-km Indo-Myanmar border, to intensify vigil.

The two border guarding forces were asked to remain extra vigilant so that no illegal immigrant could enter India, the home ministry official said.

The move came after the government told the Supreme Court that Rohingyas were "illegal" immigrants and some of them were part of a "sinister" design of Pakistan's ISI and terror groups such as the ISIS, whose presence in the country will pose a "serious" national security threat.

The government told Parliament on August 9 that more than 14,000 Rohingyas, registered with the UNHCR, were staying in India. However, aid agencies estimate that there are about 40,000 Rohingya Muslims in the country.

Rohingyas are minority Muslims in western Myanmar and have been fleeing their homes following a crackdown on their villages that has left hundreds dead.

Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims, described by the UN as the most persecuted minority in the world, fled their homes in Rakhine state recently to escape a military crackdown. It seemed a "textbook example of ethnic cleansing", UN human rights chief Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein had said.