Over a thousand miles away, Rohingyas pray for a miracle

Burmese in Karachi’s Arkanabad mourn the ‘genocide’ of community in Myanmar’s Arakan

KARACHI: Muhammad Saleem is relieved. The 53-year-old fisherman has gotten word that his parents and his nephews and nieces are safe in Bangladesh.

“My elderly parents and their grandchildren finally crossed the Myanmar border into Bangladesh on Tuesday,” Saleem told The Express Tribune from under a Neem tree at a small neighbourhood tea stall in the 100 Quarters area of Korangi, where older members of the local Rohingya community spent much of their time discussing various issues.

But for many years, the discussions have been focused on a singular issue – the plight of the Rohingya back home in Myanmar. The coastal belt of Karachi houses more than 200,000 Rohingyas. Most of them migrated – or have descended from migrants – from around 1962, when the Dadabhoy and Adamjee factories were shifted from Rangoon (since renamed Yangon) to Karachi and the Myanmar military overthrew its government, till around 1985, when the borders of Bangladesh were closed for the Rohingyas.



Saleem migrated to Pakistan in 1985 in search of better opportunities and has never gone back to Myanmar. “I spoke to my father who is in his 90s. He is safe, but many of our relatives were killed in the recent wave of violence against the Muslim population.”

Asked if he wanted to be around his parents, he answered bluntly. “If I was still in Myanmar I would probably have been killed.”

Elaborating, he said life for the Rohingyas living in cities is far better than those living in villages, as entire villages along with anyone living in them, are being burnt to the ground. He added that they are thankful to the government of Bangladesh for allowing refugees in, but also pointed out that the delay in allowing refugees to cross led to “the killing of thousands of elderly people, women, and children”.

While most Rohingya residents of Pakistan do face some problems, most feel lucky to be in Pakistan and free from the persecution that their friends and relatives face in Myanmar at the hands of its government and radical elements from its Buddhist majority.

Foreigners in their homelands

The Rohingyas make up 85% of the total population of Arakan province, now known as Rakhine state. They mostly settled there during the British rule in United India, said Abdul Hakeem, 57, as he set up fishing net on his boat in Ali Akbar Goth, Ibrahim Hyderi.

Most of the Rohingya residents of Pakistan are settled in Ibrahim Hyderi in Bin Qasim Town, but in Karachi alone, there are also more than half-a-dozen settlements in Korangi, Machchar Colony, and Musharraf Colony.



Ironically, while the Rohingyas in Pakistan are usually referred to as Burmese, the ‘Burmese’ government denies them citizenship rights and refers to them as foreigners. Hakeem said the Rohingyas in Pakistan often hide their identity and let themselves be referred to as Bengalis in Pakistan.

Hakeem said Rohingya Muslims are being persecuted simply because they demanded basic human rights, adding that they are being labelled terrorists and are being cleansed from the areas where their ancestors settled hundreds of years ago.

He remarked that the Muslims of Myanmar supported Aung San Suu Kyi and voted her National League for Democracy party during the 2015 elections in Myanmar which brought it into power. They had hoped that she would deliver for them, but she has also caved in because of the Buddhist vote bank, Hakeem said.

Gora Mian, in his late 80s and a resident of Arkanabad Korangi, said the resource-rich Arakan province – on the country’s western coast and bordering Bangladesh – was handed over after the Rohingya Muslims sided with the British against Japan during World War-II.



He told The Express Tribune that the military of Myanmar, with the support of Buddhist groups, is persecuting the Rohingyas and labels them Bengali refugees without offering any recognition for their identity, or even their existence.

“I was 13 when the British and Japanese went to war in Burma. I can vouch for the fact that the level of atrocities we suffered during the World War was not as bad as the recent massacres fuelled by the government,” Mian added.

He demanded that Pakistan and other Muslim countries such as Bangladesh and Turkey play their role in ending the persecution of the Rohingya and bring the matter before the United Nations Security Council.



Hussain Ahmed, a Rohingya resident of Korangi, remarked that Rohingya Muslims should not be forced to flee from their homeland, but rather they should be granted independence from Myanmar. “We feel that we are Pakistanis since we were born in this country, but we still have ties with the Rohingyas who are being massacred in their homeland.”

He was quick to clarify that even in Pakistan, “We are considered foreigners as we are not allowed to get Pakistani citizenship, but still, at least we can live in peace.”