Rohingya crisis: India to send relief materials for refugees in Bangladesh
Deeply concerned India will send on Thursday a consignment of humanitarian assistance to Bangladesh for Rohingya Muslims, who are facing problem due to the influx of refugees from Myanmar following the ethnic violence in the Buddhist-majority nation.
Bangladesh High Commissioner in New Delhi Syed Muazzem Ali had met Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar last week and discussed the issue of Rohingyas in detail.
"An Indian aircraft will carry the first consignment of humanitarian assistance tomorrow...It will land at Chittagong airport at 11 am," an Indian High Commission spokesman told PTI.
Indian High Commissioner in Dhaka Harsh Vardhan Shringla would hand over the relief materials to Bangladesh's Road Transport and Bridges Minister and Awami League general secretary Obaidul Quader, the spokesman added.
Bangladesh, which is facing a big influx of Rohingyas from Myanmar, has called on the international community to intervene and put pressure on Myanmar to address the exodus.
According to the UN estimates, over 379,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled Myanmar's Rakhine state into Bangladesh since August 25 when fresh wave of violence erupted.
According to media reports, the violence began when Rohingya militants attacked police posts in Myanmar's northern Rakhine state.
Rohingya residents - a stateless mostly Muslim minority in a Buddhist-majority nation - allege that the military and Rakhine Buddhists responded with a brutal campaign against them, according to the reports.
Bangladesh had earlier said the new influx of Rohingya refugees is an unbearable additional burden on the country which has been hosting around 400,000 Myanmar nationals who had to leave their country in the past due to communal violence and repeated military operations.
Quader had said on Sunday that Bangladesh needed "crucial" Indian support in handling the crisis.
"The
entire
world
today
is
worried
with
the
Rohingya
issue
(and)
their
(India's)
concern
and
stand
beside
us
is
very
crucial
at
this
moment,"
he
had
said.
Foreign
Minister
A
H
Mahmood
Ali,
at
a
media
briefing
on
the
same
day,
however,
referred
to
the
Indian
concern
about
the
crisis.
PTI