New Delhi, Sept. 18: The Centre today linked sections of the 40,000 Rohingya Muslim refugees in India to terror outfits based in Pakistan and other countries in an affidavit to the Supreme Court, which is hearing a petition against a purported government plan to deport the Myanmarese immigrants.
The document, placed before a bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra, echoed the contents of the draft affidavit The Telegraph had published on Friday but which the government had played down, saying it hadn't been finalised.
"When a just and fair procedure prescribed by law exists for deportation, this hon'ble court may decline its interference leaving to the central government to exercise its essential executive function by way of a policy decision in larger interest of the country," the Centre said.
It argued that the Rohingya refugees "figured in the sinister designs" of extremist groups like the Islamic State, had no statutory or constitutional rights in India, and violated Indian citizens' rights to life and liberty through the security threat they posed.
The government said that since India was not a signatory to the UN's 1951 Refugee Convention or Protocol of 1967, it was not obliged to observe non-refoulement (prohibition against deporting refugees to a country where they may be persecuted).
It claimed it had evidence of "linkages of some of the unauthorised Rohingya immigrants with Pakistan-based terror organisations and similar organisations operating in other countries".
"More disturbing part is that there is an organised influx of illegal immigrants from Myanmar through agents and touts... via Benapole-Haridaspur (West Bengal), Hilli (West Bengal) and Sonamura (Tripura), Kolkata and Guwahati," it said.
The bench, which also included Justices A.M. Khanwilkar and D.Y. Chandrachud, said it would hear the matter on October 3, when it would also consider an intervention application moved by an Assam-based Muslim social activist justifying deportation.
According to activist Matiur Rahman, represented by advocate Somiran Sharma, Assam faces recurring ethnic conflicts between the indigenous population and illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, and a failure to pre-empt a likely influx by the Rohingya would compound the problem.
The Centre alleged that some of the Rohingya were mobilising funds through the illegal hundi and hawala channels, procuring fake PAN and voter cards and trafficking fellow refugees.
"Many of the Rohingya figure in the suspected sinister designs of ISI/ISIS and other extremist groups who want to achieve their ulterior motives in India, including that of flaring up communal and sectarian violence in sensitive areas," the Centre said.
It cited the "diversion of national resources (to the Rohingya) to the detriment of Indian citizens".
It said that whenever the country faced an influx of illegal immigrants, the government took policy decisions based on parameters such as "empirical data and objective facts", the potential threat to the nation's security, and diplomatic and other considerations.
"Such decisions... are essentially executive decisions... based on several executive and administrative considerations which would not be justiciable," the Centre argued.
"This hon'ble court may not, therefore, accede to any prayer which may amount to re-writing or substituting an essential executive policy of the central government."
Qaida suspect held
A suspected British al Qaida operative who had come to India to allegedly radicalise Rohingya refugees has been arrested from east Delhi, police claimed today.
The suspect has been identified as Samiun Rahman alias Raju Bhai, a 27-year-old Bangladeshi-origin British national.
