New Delhi:

The BJP attacked the ruling AAP on Tuesday accusing it of helping illegal Rohingyas and Bangladeshis in Delhi settle down by providing them official documents, and then use them as its vote bank.

No immediate reaction was available from the AAP over BJP’s allegation.

Former BJP MP Parvesh Verma told PTI “We all know they do not vote for the BJP… they are AAP’s vote bank.” Mr Verma alleged once illegal immigrants laid Jhuggis (tenements) in the city, AAP leaders provided them with help and official documents like ration cards to settle them down so that they could get their votes in the elections.

The former MP, who is gearing up to contest the upcoming Delhi Assembly polls from New Delhi seat, said he has identified some places in the constituency with concentration of such people and filed a complaint with the district magistrate to take appropriate action.

AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal is sitting MLA from the New Delhi seat.

In a post on X, Mr Kejriwal without naming anyone , alleged “They have have started buying votes in my constituency. Openly giving Rs 1,000 cash per vote.” Mr Kejriwal has said in the past that voters should take money from the BJP but vote for the AAP.

Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva charged that ever since the BJP demanded an investigation into illegal Bangladeshi and Rohingya voters in Delhi, Mr Kejriwal was flustered because these “illegal infiltrators were perhaps the foundation of AAP’s victory in Delhi elections”.

A BJP delegation recently met Election Commission officials, alleging illegal Rohingya and Bangladeshis were registered as voters in Delhi at the behest of the AAP.

Delhi Police on Tuesday arrested 11 persons, claiming to have unearthed a gang involved in illegal immigration of Bangladeshi nationals.

Among those arrested, four are Bangladeshi citizens and the rest were allegedly involved in making forged documents, an official said.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

A powerful ethnic armed group fighting Myanmar’s military government in the country’s western state of Rakhine claimed on May 18, 2024, to have seized a town near the border with Bangladesh, marking the latest in a series of victories for foes of the country’s military government. File
| Photo Credit: AP

Rohingya activists accused a Myanmar ethnic armed group on May 22 of displacing thousands of the persecuted minority in western Rakhine state, after the United States said it was troubled by increasing violence.

Clashes have rocked Rakhine since the Arakan Army (AA) attacked junta forces in November, ending a ceasefire that had largely held since a military coup in 2021.

The AA says it is fighting for more autonomy for the ethnic Rakhine population in the state, which is also home to around 6,00,000 members of the persecuted Rohingya Muslim minority.

Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya fled Rakhine in 2017 during a crackdown by the military that is now the subject of a United Nations genocide court case.

A joint statement released by several Rohingya organisations based abroad said AA fighters forced Rohingya residents to leave the town of Buthidaung last week and then burned and looted their homes.

It said the Rohingya were then directed by the fighters into areas controlled by the AA.

The statement called for the AA to end “forced displacement and human rights violations” against the Rohingya.

The AA said it had seized Buthidaung last week, the latest victory it has claimed against the junta in Rakhine state.

It said it had warned residents of the town to leave and had subsequently been “assisting people in moving to safer areas” but did not give any details.

It accused the junta of destroying Buthidaung and of inciting “racial and religious violence” by recruiting “Bengali Muslims” to fight the AA.

Rohingya view the word “Bengali” as a slur that implies they are interlopers in Buddhist-majority Myanmar.

The Rohingya groups’ statement also accused the junta of conscripting “several thousand” Rohingya to fight and of using them as “cannon fodder”.

The junta has not responded to requests for comment on the latest clashes around Buthidaung.

AFP has also contacted the AA for comment.

The latest clashes have killed hundreds and displaced at least 3,00,000 people across Rakhine since they began in November, according to the United Nations.

Internet and phone networks are all but cut across swaths of the state, making communication difficult.

‘Stoking tensions’

The U.S. State Department cited on Tuesday reports of towns being burned and residents including Rohingya people being displaced.

The U.N. human rights chief issued a similar warning at the weekend, saying that tensions were high between ethnic Rakhine and Rohingya and were being stoked by Myanmar’s military junta.

“The military’s previous acts of genocide and other crimes against humanity targeting Rohingya, in addition to its history of stoking intercommunal tensions in Rakhine… underscore the grave dangers to civilians,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said in a statement.

“The current increased violence and intercommunal tensions also raise the risks of further atrocities occurring,” he added.

Mr. Miller called on the junta and all armed groups to protect civilians and allow unhindered humanitarian access.

The AA is one of several armed ethnic minority groups in Myanmar’s border regions, many of which have battled the military since independence from Britain in 1948 over autonomy and control of lucrative resources.

Clashes between the AA and the military in 2019 displaced around 2,00,000 people.

Rohingya refugees stand on a capsized boat before being rescued, in the waters of West Aceh, Indonesia, March 21, 2024.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

An Indonesian search-and-rescue ship located a capsized wooden boat that had been carrying dozens of Rohingya Muslim refugees and began pulling survivors who had been standing on its hull to safety on March 21.

An AP photographer aboard the rescue ship said 10 people had been taken aboard local fishing boats and another 59 were being saved by the Indonesian craft.

Men, women and children, weak and soaked from the night’s rain, wept as the rescue operation got under way and people were taken aboard a rubber dinghy to the rescue boat.