Brussels-based rights activists aware of developing links between Pakistan and Rohingya militants

Human rights activists based in Brussels, Belgium, have noted the strong and deep developing links between Pakistan and Rohingya militants.

According to a mizzima.com website report, both India and Bangladesh are said to be worried over this development, but not surprised by this link.

Mizzima said intelligence agencies in India and Bangladesh are not surprised by Myanmar President Htin Kyaw's recent statement, where he blamed the "Aqa Mul Mujahideen", a little-known Rohingya militant group, for the recent attacks on Myanmar border outposts.

Both were also not surprised by the fact that this group and some of its leaders have received weapons training in Pakistan.

According to rights activists, the AMM is a new armed group that has its origins from the Harkat-ul-Jihad Islami-Arakan (HUJI-A) which enjoys close relations with the Pakistan Taliban.

HUJI-A chief Abdus Qadoos Burmi is a Pakistani national of Rohingya origin, and it is claimed that he recruited and trained AMM chief Hafiz Tohar, who hails from Kyauk Pyin Seik village in Maungdaw in Myanmar.

Burmi is reported to also have close links with the Lashkar-e-Tayyaba and Jamaatud Dawa (LeT/JuD), headed by Hafiz Sayeed.

It is being reported that these promising Rohingya recruits trained in Pakistan have set up bases on the Bangladesh-Myanmar border and training others in combat techniques and in the use of explosives.

A couple of years ago, it was reported that Bangladesh intelligence raided some of these bases, but they were found to have been abandoned before the raids.

Indian intelligence officials have been quoted by Mizzima, as saying that Pakistan-linked Rohingya terror groups have been noticed in Mae Sot area on the Thai side of the Thai-Myanmar border. They also claim that Rohingya jihadis have been found fighting alongside Pakistani fighters on the Indian side of Kashmir.

Maulana Shabeer Ahmed, a Pakistan-based Rohingya operative who was arrested by authorities in Bangladesh in 2012, is said to have revealed that he was coordinating with Rohingya militants in Bangladesh on behalf of the Jaish e Mohammed (JeM).

He said that besides Qadoos Burmi, another Rohingya militant network said to be operating out of Pakistan and is headed by Maulana Abdul Hamid, a Pakistan national of Rohingya origin, who is reported to be active along the Bangladesh-Myanmar border.

Rohingya community sources say that Nur Hussain Arakani, head of the Pakistan chapter of Rohingya Solidarity Organisation (RSO), has been collecting funds and relief material from Hafiz Mohammed Sayeed of JuD/ LeT and Maulana Abdu Rauf of JuD-linked Falah-e-Insaaniyat foundation (FIF) in 2015.

The RSO is the mother group, from which a number of more militant offshoots have now emerged.

While Bangladesh's ruling Awami League has come forward to extend all cooperation to Myanmar in its efforts to curb Rohingya militancy, India also suspects Rohingya militants could use Indian territory to attack Myanmar tourists and pilgrims and may be used by Pakistan to hit Indian targets as well.