Rohingya cause behind Bodh Gaya blasts?

Were the serial bomb blasts in Bodh Gaya timed to coincide with an international conference highlighting the plight of Myanmar’s Rohingya community in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia? Sanjib Kr Baruah and Jatin Anand report. IM, Rohingya outfit under scanner

Were the serial bomb blasts in Bodh Gaya timed to coincide with an international conference highlighting the plight of Myanmar’s Rohingya community in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia?

A-National-Security-Guard-NSG-soldier-collects-the-evidence-from-the-site-of-the-Mahabodhi-Temple-in-Bodh-Gaya-a-day-after-the-serial-blasts-AP-Photo

Security agencies strongly suspect the blasts to be the handiwork of the Indian Mujahideen (IM) in protest against alleged atrocities by a majority of Buddhists on Rohingyas in Myanmar.

On Sunday itself, the Arakan Rohingya Union (ARU) Conference began in Jeddah in Saudi Arabia with the aim to highlighting the plight of the community and act as a “legitimate representative of the Rohingyas around the world”.

Hosted by the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), the ARU conference at Jeddah is the second such conference since the setting up of ARU on May 30, 2011.

However, it is not only IM that is on the security agencies’ radar; IB has also set its eyes on Rohingya Solidarity Organisation (RSO), which is now allegedly at the helm of a pan south-Asia terror campaign aimed at destabilising Asean countries through guerrilla attacks and is reorganising itself with a vengeance.

“Our interest in the RSO was aroused after reports of return of its founder members, Maulana Anawar and Dr. Younus, to Myanmar’s Arakan started pouring in from our counterparts in the R&AW in early January,” said an IB official.

The duo had fled to London and Saudi Arabia, respectively, after the Junta had come down hard upon the outfit. They also have a military base-cum-training ground in Bangladesh’s Marichar district, the IB claims.

“Among their trainers are operatives belonging to groups such as the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) and the Islamic Movement of Kazakhstan (IMK) with local assistance from the Hafiat-e-Islam of Bangladesh as well as the ISI-backed Lashkar-e-Taiba,” said the official.