Jammu lawyers and activists on Tuesday protested against the lynching of a Hindu man in Bangladesh, demanded the eviction of the "Bangladeshi and Rohingya refugees" living in the region and threatened to intensify the agitation if the Centre failed to act against the neighbouring country.

A few dozen lawyers led by Jammu High Court Bar Association president Nirmal K. Kotwal staged a demonstration outside the court premises in Jammu and protested against alleged atrocities committed on minority Hindus in Bangladesh.

Kotwal said they were holding a symbolic protest, which could intensify if the atrocities did not stop. “All the Bar associations in Jammu province can join the protests. The message will go to the entire province that if atrocities on Hindus are not stopped in Bangladesh, and if the government of India, Modiji and Amit Shahji do not take strict cognisance and if those in Bangladesh involved in such acts are not stopped and action is not taken against them, we will hit the streets in Jammu,” Kotwal told reporters.

“There can be more protests. There can be a Jammu bandh. We will involve the civil society. The Bar association has always been a nationalist outfit and we work for the nation.”

Kotwal said there were two solutions to the issue — either bring Bangladeshi Hindus to India or ensure their protection there. “Our country is capable of doing it,” he said.

The Jammu Bar president demanded that illegal Bangladeshi and Rohingya immigrants be evicted from the region. A few thousand Rohingya refugees have been living in the Jammu region for years. The BJP has long been demanding their eviction, alleging they have been living there with the help of Valley-based parties.

Chief minister Omar Abdullah and his father, Farooq Abdullah, last year dropped a bombshell when they claimed that Rohingya refugees were being settled in the region by the BJP-led central government.

The war of words started after the Jammu administration snapped water and power connections to the Rohingya refugees, prompting Omar to ask the Centre to deport them as and when they want, but not to treat them as animals as long as they are here.

The BJP then asked the lieutenant governor's administration to order a CBI probe to fix responsibility for the Rohingya settlement, but no step is known to have been taken. The government had earlier launched a crackdown on locals who had rented their properties to Rohingya refugees in Jammu, who include Hindus and Muslims. Hundreds of Rohingya refugees have been put in a detention centre in Jammu.

The Shiv Sena Dogra Front also held a protest at Rani Park in Jammu against alleged atrocities on Hindus in Bangladesh. Front president Ashok Gupta said Hindus were being killed in Bangladesh while “illegal Bangladeshi and Rohingya settlers are being provided facilities in Jammu”.