Rohingya terrorists linked to pro-Pak terror groups in Jammu & Kashmir

NEW DELHI: Little-known Rohingya terror group Aqa Mul Mujahideen blamed for the recent attacks on Myanmar border outposts by the country's president not only maintains links with Hafiz Saeed’s Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) but is learnt to have developed ties with the Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) cell in Jammu and Kashmir.

Aqa Mul Mujahideen (AMM) leaders were trained in Pakistan and later recruited Rohingya youth in Rakhine region of Myanmar, claimed persons familiar with the group and its activities. AMM is a new armed group that originated from the Harkat-ul-Jihad Islami-Arakan (HUJI-A).

There are reports of Rohingya terrorists fighting alongside Pakistani extremists in Kashmir. One of their top leaders, Chotta Burmi, was killed in Kashmir along with JeM commander Adil Pathan last year. Earlier Burmi allegedly shared the dais with Hafiz Saeed in Pakistan.

It is understood that security agencies of India, Bangladesh and Myanmar are coordinating their actions against Rohingya terror groups.

The current HUJI-A chief -- Abdus Qadoos Burmi, a Pakistani national of Rohingya origin, who it is claimed recruited one Hafiz Tohar from Maungdaw in Myanmar. Tohar is now said to be heading the AMM and Qadoos Burmi is reported to be close to Saeed. Saeed’s other terror group, Jamat ud Dawa (JuDD)’s humanitarian arm, Falah-e-Insaniat (FiF), was active in Rohingya relief camps in Rakhine State after the 2012 riots.

Qadoos Burmi also developed the HUJI-A network in Bangladesh, using the remote hills along its border with Myanmar, according to government sources in Dhaka.

It may be recalled that JuD launched Difa-e-Musalman-e-Arakan conference in Pakistan to highlight the Rohingya cause in 2012. Subsequently, two senior JuD operatives, Shahid Mahmood and Nadeem Awan, allegedly established direct contacts with Rohingya extremists based in camps along the Bangladesh-Myanmar border, hinted persons familiar with the issue.

Earlier, the Bangladesh authorities arrested Maulana Shabeer Ahmed, a Pakistan-based Rohingya operative in 2012 who revealed that he was coordinating with Rohingya terrorists in Bangladesh on behalf of JeM.

Bangladesh authorities are not ruling out the fact that Rohingya armed groups may have close links with Bangladesh's home grown terrorists and could share hideouts, finances and sources of weapons supply.

Pakistan-linked Rohingya terror groups have also allegedly been noticed in Mae Sot area on the Thai side of the Thai-Myanmar border.