India’s Rohingya refugees struggle with hatred, fear as first group is expelled

The atmosphere facing the Rohingya in India has been getting increasingly ugly.

Jammu's Chamber of Commerce & Industry last year threatened to launch an "identify and kill movement" against the settlers, which it said pushed the government into taking the issue of Rohingya more seriously.

The chamber's president, Rakesh Gupta, told Reuters on Friday that there was nothing new in taking the law into one's hands if "someone becomes a threat to our security, to the nation's security, and the security forces don't tackle them".

In some of the more virulent parts of India’s media, the Rohingya are not only accused of being terrorists but also of trafficking in drugs and humans, and of having the money to elbow out local businesses.

India's home ministry has told the Supreme Court that it had reports from security agencies and other authentic sources "indicating linkages of some of the unauthorised Rohingya immigrants with Pakistan-based terror organisations and similar organisations operating in other countries".

"It's definitely an election issue,” said Kavinder Gupta, a BJP legislator in Jammu & Kashmir and former deputy chief minister of the state.

"It's our decision to throw them out keeping in mind the security situation of the state," he told Reuters on the sidelines of a campaign meeting for municipal elections. "We have made the home ministry aware of the need to send them back to their country."

Senior Jammu police officials said on condition of anonymity that they had identified all Rohingya in the area in preparation for their eventual deportation. They added they had not found any link of Rohingya with militants.

Around 600 km (370 miles) south of Jammu, residents of a makeshift refugee camp in Delhi's Shaheen Bagh also said they fear deportation.

"We don't want to leave India. Where will we go?" said Mohammed Harun, a 47-year-old Rohingya elder in Delhi. "There are refugees from other countries in India too. Why are we being targeted? Why do they send us to jail? It is only because we are Muslims. They don't do this to the other refugees."