POLICE have opened four investigation papers on online threats made against the stateless Rohingya community in the country, said senior minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob.

The defence minister said 19 police reports have been lodged so far against individuals and Facebook page groups on the alleged threats.

“Four papers have been opened by the police and 19 police reports have been lodged,” Ismail Sabri told the press at his daily press conference.

Recently, Rohingya rights activist Tengku Emma Zuriana Tengku Azmi told The Malaysian Insight that she had lodged two police reports after receiving death and rape threats online.

The European Rohingya Council ambassador to Malaysia also said irresponsible parties have shared her identification number and car registration number on social media.

“They shared my details online and it was shared for 15,000 times on Facebook. I got calls, text messages wanting to kill me, throw me into the ocean and as far as rape,” she said.

Rohingya leaders have told The Malaysian Insight recently that they now live in fear following online attacks against the community.

The attack came after a self-proclaimed Rohingya leader – Zafar Ahmad – allegedly demanded full citizenship for the community and made disparaging remarks about the Malays on Facebook.

Zafar, who claims to head the Myanmar Ethnic Rohingya Human Rights Organisation (Mehrom), denies making such claims.

Due to the backlash, a coalition of Rohingya groups said in a statement that Zafar was never elected as Mehrom head.

The signatories, including Arakan Watch, Human Rights Association for Rohingya, Ethnic Rohingya Committee of Arakan, Rohingya Cooperative Society and Rohingya Association in Malaysia among others, also apologised for Zafar’s comments.

“On behalf of the Rohingya community, we apologise to the people of Malaysia and the government of Malaysia for the irresponsible statements made by Zafar Ahmed.

“He was never elected as the president of the organisation and we are against such unrealistic and irresponsible statements,” they said.

According to the UN refugee agency UNHCR, as of February 2020, there are some 178,990 refugees and asylum-seekers registered in Malaysia.

More than 154,000 are from Myanmar, comprising 101,010 Rohingya, Chins (22,810) and others (30,250).

The Rohingya are mainly from Rakhine state. – April 28, 2020.