Islamabad: Condemning the violence against Muslims in Mayanmar, Spokesperson at the foreign office expressed strong concerns over displacement of a large number of the community drifting in a boat in the Indian Ocean without food and drinking water.

The FO said that the  government of Pakistan has been consistently expressing deep concern at the plight of minority Muslim community in Myanmar.

“The current displacement of a large number of Muslims, who are adrift on boats in the Indian Ocean, without access to food and drinking water, is worrisome,” the spokesperson added.

 At the 28th session of Human Rights Council in March 2015, Pakistan in its capacity as OIC Group Coordinator for Human Rights and Humanitarian Issues in UN, Geneva, stressed the need for Myanmar government to grant citizenship and other rights to Rohingya Muslims.

 Pakistan is also supporting an OIC resolution titled “The Situation of the Muslim Community in Myanmar”, which will be presented to the Council of Foreign Ministers on 27-28 May 2015 in Kuwait. It urges the authorities of Myanmar to take all necessary measures to restore stability and launch a comprehensive reconciliation process in Rakhine State.

 The Adviser to the Prime Minister on National Security and Foreign Affairs addressed a letter to the OIC Secretary General on 20 May 2015, urging the Council of Foreign Ministers to take all necessary measures during the forthcoming Council of Foreign Ministers on 27-28 May 2015 in Kuwait, for the rescue and rehabilitation of displaced Rohingya Muslims. He will also be taking up the issue with the OIC Ministers during the Council of Foreign Ministers’ session so as to evolve a common position among the member states.
Pakistan strongly believes that peaceful coexistence of all communities in Myanmar, with provision of fundamental rights like citizenship, freedom to practice religion, education and security, is essential to peace, progress and prosperity of the country.

The violence, kidnapping, killing, beating Muslims, driving them out and destroying their properties has become a common practice in the country with a Buddhist Majority. The government of Myanmar, cracking down on the country’s minority Muslims, this week arrested at least a dozen people on charges of belonging to a terrorist group that defense lawyers and security experts reportedly said does not exist.

Journalists quoted the administration of President Thein Sein as refusing to disclose any evidence that the “Myanmar Muslim Army” is real — raising the prospect that the government invented an Islamic terrorist threat to justify a new front in its longtime persecution of Muslims.