E-Paper
J&K to screen all Rohingyas for Covid-19
The home ministry has asked states and UTs to screen Rohingya Muslims and their contacts.
A day after the ministry of home affairs’ (MHA’s) missive to states and UTs, the Jammu and Kashmir government on Saturday decided to dovetail its efforts to trace and screen Rohingya Muslims and their contacts in Jammu and Samba districts.
The home ministry has asked states and UTs to screen Rohingya Muslims and their contacts.
“At least ten Rohingyas, who either had a travel history to Nizamuddin or had come in contact of those who had attended the markaz were quarantined in Nagrota and their clusters are under constant surveillance,” said a top official.
He also said that many clusters of the Rohingya Muslims fall in the red zones of Jammu.
“Their major clusters are in red zones, including Bhatindi and Sunjuwan,” he said.
Samba district’s deputy magistrate Rohit Khajuria said, “As per our records, there are 431 Rohingya Muslims in Samba district. We have sent surveillance teams to their clusters. We will try to conduct on-the-spot tests with rapid-testing kits and if it does not work out then we will go for standard tests.”
The deputy magistratesaid their movement was restricted and no one was being allowed to move out of their clusters.
In Samba district, Rohingyas largely live in shanties by the railway tracks in Bari-Brahmana area.
A senior police officer in Bhatindi area, however, said no screening or testing of Rohingyas had been initiated.
“Ten Rohingyas and locals were quarantined a few days ago but no screening or testing has started yet”, he said.
As per the official estimate, 5,700 Rohingyas have settled in and around Jammu.
However, in contravention to government statistics, UNHCR on April 27, 2017 had told HT that there were 7,000 Rohingyas in J&K.
According to the home ministry, there are around 40,000 Rohingya refugees residing in different parts of the country, including in Delhi, Jammu and Hyderabad.
