Pakistani man reaches Yangon to help persecuted Rohingya people

With several hundreds of Rohingya Muslims already shot, stabbed or burnt to death in Myanmar, there still are thousands of them wounded and suffering from hunger.

According to a report, some 30,000 Rohingya people have been taking refuge in the mountains along the border between Myanmar and Bangladesh. They are also taking refuge in camps in Bangladesh, while tens of thousands of them are still held up in camps in Myanmar's troubled Rakhine state.

No one knows as to how much assistance these troubled masses are being provided in Myanmar. On the other hand, the country's government claims that those displaced do not include people from a single community.

In such difficult times, a Pakistani man has reached Yangon — Myanmar's capital — to somehow provide assistance to these stranded Rohingya people.

Zakir Ali — a trader from Hyderabad — reached Yangon after the Pakistan government did not respond to his request to accommodate ten Rohingya families and bear their expenses.

After his calls to the embassies of Pakistan and Bangladesh went unanswered, Ali is disappointed for he, himself, cannot dispatch relief goods to these violence-stricken Rohingya people, which he had to purchase from Yangon.

Ali's selfless efforts to provide relief to troubled Rohingya people in Myanmar remind us of renowned Pakistani humanitarian Abdul Sattar Edhi.

At the time of Israel's attack on Gaza back in 2009, Edhi was present in Cairo with tonnes of relief goods and volunteers, waiting to enter the Gaza Strip. An epitome of compassion, he used to reach the most difficult of places to serve the suffering humanity.

From Pakistan, only a property tycoon and a stockbroker had sought details from Pakistani embassy in Myanmar to help provide relief to Rohingya people.

Or this Hyderabad trader was prompted to reach here.

With Edhi gone, the relief goods from Pakistani people could also not reach these thousands of persecuted people in Myanmar's troubled region.