Pakistan is fuelling unrest in Myanmar’s backyard, by Shishir Gupta.

The current crisis is the fallout of a coordinated attack on multiple police posts on August 25 by more than 150 Rohingya militants in Maungdaw, Buthidaung and Rathedaung townships in the north Rakhine State. …

Myanmar President Htin Kyaw held Rohingya militant group Aqa Mul Mujahideen (AMM) responsible for the attack. …

Islamic fundamentalists such as the Afghan Taliban, Al Qaida’s Yemen Branch, Lashkar-e-Tayyeba, Jaish-e-Mohammed and other groups have called for attacks on Myanmar authorities in support of the Rohingyas. …

The international community has questioned Myanmar for the crisis but has forgotten the bloody contribution of Pakistan-based jihadist groups to this catastrophe. There is now evidence that little known AMM had emerged from Harkat-ul-Jihad Islami Arakan (HUJI-A), a Pakistan-based extremist outfit involved in espousing the Rohingya Muslim cause in Myanmar. …

Intelligence agencies believe that Rohingya militant activities concentrated in Bangladesh’s Chittagong area and Thailand’s Mae Sot, Tak province have the sanction of the Pakistani deep state. Frequent movements of Maulana Ustad Wazeer aka Noor Kabir and Fareed Faizullah, both Pakistani nationals of Rohingya origin, to the Thai border have been noted by intelligence agencies for getting cadres indoctrinated and trained in insurgent activities. …

Pakistan’s Jamaat-e-Islami, which is close to its Bangladesh chapter, moved a resolution in its Senate and the National Assembly against Myanmar for the so-called Rohingya genocide. Pakistan Foreign Minister Khawaja Muhammed Asif has also urged the Muslim world to put pressure on Myanmar.

hat-tip Scott of the Pacific