A Rohingya couple, held in custody at the Hiranagar detention center in Jammu, experienced a heart-wrenching tragedy as their 43-day-old baby passed away at a nearby refugee “holding centre.”
The holding centre had recently witnessed clashes between inmates and police, resulting in injuries to several people, including three policemen and Rohingyas.
In a video that went viral on social media, the grief-stricken parents were seen brought to the burial site in handcuffs for their child’s last rites. Another video showed the same couple, still in handcuffs, as they received the baby’s body at a Rohingya settlement in Narwal, Jammu.
However, conflicting reports emerged about the cause of the baby’s death. Jail authorities, particularly Koushal Kumar, the superintendent of Kathua district jail, which oversees the holding centre, denied that the death was a result of the clashes. Instead, they stated that the baby had been suffering from an ailment and had passed away two days after the incident at the detention centre.
The situation at the holding centre remains tense, with 271 Rohingyas, including 144 women and children, detained there. The clashes erupted after the Rohingyas, who had been conducting multiple hunger strikes to demand their release and deportation to Myanmar, intensified their protests. As a response, the police used force, resorting to lathicharge and tear-gas shelling to gain control over the situation.
