On a chilly morning, 30-year-old Akram (name changed) stood at the gate of the colony where he stays in Balapur, near Chandrayangutta. He is one among the thousands of Rohingya Muslim refugees living in the city after fleeing from persecution in his homeland of Myanmar.
Now, after few years of calm, Akram and several others in his colony are a worried lot, after they learnt that a member of their community had been arrested by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) over alleged terror charges. “Our name is tainted now because of this one incident. We don’t even feel like showing our faces to the people we meet everyday,” said Wasim (name changed), another refugee, who does labour work daily. Wasim explained that apart from the daily hardships he and his community members face, they now have to deal with questions regularly about their identity as well. “Of course, people ask about the arrest, and also whether we knew that man (Khaled). But the truth is that none of us knew him, as he would barely talk to us. We only knew that he was living nearby,” he said.
Reflecting on the past, of the persecution they had to flee from, both Wasim and Akram are now wondering about their uncertain future. They narrated how they left their properties and valuables and fled from their State of Arakan in Myanmar, hoping to live in India.
“We chose to come to India thinking that life would be better here, and that we would be safe. But our existence here is also a question mark now,” said Akram.
With limited work available for men, who are burdened with taking care of their families, both the them hope that the coming days would be better, so that they can at least carry on with their existence here.
