New Delhi: All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief Asaduddin Owaisi on Friday attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the government’s plan to deport Rohingya Muslim refugees staying in India.

Criticising the government over the Rohingya refugee issue, he questioned that when the government can provide shelter to Buddhist refugees of Tibet then why it wanted to send back 40,000 Muslim refugees from Myanmar.

“When Tibetan refugees, Tamil refugees can stay in India, why can’t Rohingyas? Why Bhartiya Janata Party government headed by Modi wants to send them back,” Owaisi said while addressing a public gathering in Hyderabad.

Owaisi mentioned noted Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen who has been living in India in exile since 1994 and stated that if she can be sister of Prime Minister Modi, why cannot Rohingyas be his brothers.

“If Taslima Nasreen can stay here, why can’t Rohingyas? If Taslima can be the Prime Minister’s sister, can’t Rohingyas become his brothers? Is this humanity to send those people back who have lost everything? This is wrong. Under which law, can the Centre send all the Rohingya refugees back?” he asked.

The parliamentarian from Hyderabad also raised the issue of Chakmas from Bangladesh settled in Arunachal Pradesh.

“During the three wars with Pakistan, many refugees from West Pakistan were allowed to enter the country and also given voting rights, then why can’t 40,000 Rohingyas stay in a country with a billion plus population,” he averred.

He said the union government seemed to have misplaced priorities.

“Over 120 children died due to lack of oxygen in hospital in Gorakhpur. We don’t have money for oxygen to save our children and Modi is launching bullet train. A few weeks ago, Mumbai was under water for 12 hours, Mr. Modi instead of bullet train you should make bullet drain which is more required for Mumbai,” Owais said.

The issue came to the fore after the Home Ministry recently said that Rohingya posed grave security challenges to India as they are vulnerable to recruitment from terror groups.

On Thursday, Minister of State for Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju said Rohingya Muslim refugees were a security concern for India and criticism of India’s treatment of the ethnic minority was a calibrated design to tarnish the country’s image.