HaY (Movement of the Faith) is overseen by the Rohingya committee based in Mecca, and led by Ata Ullah, an ethnic Rohingya born in Karachi, Pakistan. Though not confirmed, there are indications he went to Pakistan and possibly elsewhere to receive practical training in modern guerrilla warfare.
ICG has warned that given the HaY’s appeals to religious legitimacy and links to international jihadist groups, its objectives could evolve to an international jihadist struggle rather than only securing the rights of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar. ICG points out that Rohingyas have fought in conflicts in other countries while the Pakistanis or the Afghans provide clandestine training to Rohingyas in northern Rakhine.
According to Sushant Sareen of the Institute of Defense Studies and Analysis, the dreaded jihadist outfit Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (HUJI) had strong Rohingya connections when it was formed 25 years ago. They were also involved in the fight against the Soviet military in Afghanistan. A split in HUJI led to the formation of the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen but they later reunited under the banner Harkat Ul Ansar which conducted a number of terror operations in Jammu and Kashmir in India. The group later fell apart to again become Harkat ul Mujahideen and Jaish-e-Mohammad whose primary motive is to separate Kashmir from India and merge it into Pakistan. The Khuddam Ul Islam which is a splinter of JeM has a fraternal relationship with Lashkar-e-Jhangvi which, in turn has links with Daesh, Al Qaeda and Taliban, all of which are threats to India.
“This is obviously a threat to India because our eastern front. Despite a lot of cooperation from Bangladesh, there are a lot of gaps in the security architecture. If that network is being revived and because as Pakistan is involved, as the report suggests, there is bound to be some kind of threat to India as they would want to attack India, because that is what Pakistani mindset is. And these groups are not operating on their own. There have been instances suggesting their links with the Pakistani intelligence agency. So the danger is quite real for India” says Sareen.
India’s Bureau of Immigration says that more than 10,000 Rohingya Muslim families have settled in India, with the highest number in Jammu and Kashmir. The security agencies have warned the Government of India that Pakistan's Inter State Intelligence may try "to exploit Rohingyas to support jihad".
Although there are an estimated one million Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar, authorities in the country do not recognize them as citizens. The Myanmar military has been accused of numerous human rights violations against the Rohingyas, including executions, rapes, looting and burning of at least 1,500 of their houses.
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