LAHORE, July 25: Jamaat-i-Islami amir Syed Munawar Hasan has appealed to the world community to exert its diplomatic pressure on the Myanmar government to stop atrocities on its Muslim population and protect their basic human rights.

The appeal came after a three-member delegation of Myanmar Muslims called on him here on Wednesday to apprise him of the plight of the community and the brutalities being perpetrated on them.

Mr Hasan said hundreds of thousands of Myanmar Muslims were lying at the borders of Myanmar and Bangladesh and badly needed financial assistance.

They were being tortured by the state machinery and the armed forces but, unfortunately, the world community, the media and the so-called human rights bodies were completely silent.

Noor Husain Arakani, the delegation head, told the JI amir that the Myanmar Muslims were being forced to convert to Buddhism and on refusal were being subjected to untold brutalities.

“They are asked to eat pork and drink liquor. All members of the family are being kept naked during the day. Cases of gang-rape have increased. At some places, the Muslims are being burnt alive.”

He said as the Myanmar government had closed its Bangladesh borders, the immigrants were facing great hardships. They were even not allowed to use mobile phones. In fact, the government wanted to clear country of the Muslim population, he added.