NEW DELHI: The family of an Indian scholar at Georgetown University is calling for New Delhi’s intervention after US agents detained him for deportation earlier this week despite a court order against the move.
Badar Khan Suri is an Indian national and a postdoctoral fellow at Georgetown’s Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding in Washington, where he is studying and teaching on a student visa.
He was detained by Department of Homeland Security agents outside his home in northern Virginia on Monday.
A DHS assistant secretary said on X that Suri was “actively spreading Hamas propaganda and promoting antisemitism on social media,” had “close connections to a known or suspected terrorist who is a senior adviser to Hamas,” and that his presence in the US rendered him “deportable.”
Suri is married to a Gazan woman whose father was a political adviser to Palestine’s former prime minister.
“His wife is from Palestine and his father-in-law is a supporter of Gaza and the Palestinian cause. This is the allegation against my son, and for this he has been arrested,” Suri’s father, Shamshad Ali Khan, told Arab News.
“The Indian government should intervene and ensure justice for him. My son has not committed any crime ... Is it a crime to talk about Palestine or get married to a Palestinian?”
Suri’s legal team and Georgetown’s administration have repeatedly denied the DHS claims on mainstream international TV channels, and on Thursday a US district judge in Virginia blocked the US administration’s attempt to deport him.
As of Saturday, he was still in detention.
Suri completed his Ph.D. in peace and conflict studies from Nelson Mandela Center for Peace and Conflict Resolution at Jamia Millia Islamia in New Delhi, and was invited to become a fellow at Georgetown’s Alwaleed bin Talal Center, a part of the university’s School of Foreign Service.
“My son has not committed any crime if he has spoken out for the helpless people of Palestine ... As a researcher in peace and conflict studies, it is his duty to talk about it and provide insight,” Khan said.
“I am proud of my son because he is a lecturer at Georgetown University. He is a brilliant student and scholar ... At the university, people are protesting in favor of my son. The students at the university, the faculty of the university, and even the court are in favor of my son.”
Suri’s father is in contact with his daughter-in-law, who has been seeking assistance of the Indian Embassy in the US.
“My daughter-in-law informed me that she has reached out to the Indian Embassy,” he said.
“I request the Indian government to come forward to help him. The Indian embassy in Washington should come forward and help my son.”
But India’s Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal told reporters on Friday that knew about the detention only from the media and said that “when it comes to visa and immigration policy, it is something that lies within the sovereign functions of a country.”
However, top lawyers say that the government has a series of obligations it must fulfill.
“India is obliged, as all nations are, to protect its citizens anywhere in the world, so India must lodge a protest to the US, provide consular services to Mr. Suri and publicly mention that his detention is illegal,” Dushyant Dave, former Supreme Court Bar Association president and senior advocate, told Arab News.
According to another Supreme Court lawyer, Anas Tanveer, even if immigration policy is a sovereign function of the US, it is the duty of the embassy to act.
“The person there is not an illegal immigrant. He is on a scholarship, he is on a valid visa, and unless his conditions of admission and unemployment prohibit him (from expressing dissent) — and I don’t think it is possible in the US — he was very well within his rights,” he said.
“India must provide diplomatic access; India must provide legal help. The embassy must provide that. You can’t remain silent ... These are the principles of the Vienna Convention that every nation is a signatory to.”