Goa outfit holds rally against atrocities on Rohingya Muslims

Rohingya Muslims, stretch their arms out to collect food items distributed by aid agencies near Balukhali refugee camp, Bangladesh. (Source: AP)

Members of a Goa-based Muslim outfit today staged a peace march to denounce the atrocities on Rohingyas in Myanmar and sought the intervention of India and the UN to stop their exodus from the neighbouring country. Nearly 100 members of the Salcette Muslim Forum in Margao, located 35 km south of Panaji, took out the march.

The protesters alleged thousands of Rohingya Muslims have been subjected to “torture” and forced to flee their homes in Myanmar’s Rakhine state. They also submitted a memorandum addressed to External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. The memorandum was submitted to South Goa District Collector Anjali Sehrawat.

“Thousands of Rohingya Muslims have been rendered homeless in Myanmar and their human rights violated,” they said in the memorandum. The forum demanded the UN and Indian government’s intervention to stop atrocities against the community.

The outfit said the world body should immediately use its high offices and stop the bloodshed in Myanmar.