New York: An Indian student, Badar Khan Suri, has been reportedly detained and will be deported to India. A postdoctoral fellow at Georgetown University in Washington DC, Suri is a green card holder. He earlier studied at Delhi's Jamia Milia Islamia university. Suri's lawyer allege that the action against him was because he has a Palestinian spouse.
Suri was teaching "Majoritarianism and Minority Rights in South Asia" and had a PhD in peace and conflict studies from India, as per the Georgetown University website.
Masked agents from the Department of Homeland Security arrested Suri from his Arlington, Virginia, home and told him that his visa had been revoked.
Last week, an Indian student at Columbia University self-deported herself to Canada after agents reached her over her pro-Palestinian activities on campus. Ranjani Srinivasan was in the US on an F-1 student visa. According to the DHS, Srinivasan was involved in activities supporting Hamas, a designated terrorist organization.
Tricia McLaughlin, Assistant Secretary in the Department of Homeland Security, said Suri had "close connections to a known or suspected terrorist" and was spreading Hamas propaganda on campus.
"Suri was a foreign exchange student at Georgetown University actively spreading Hamas propaganda and promoting antisemitism on social media," McLaughlin posted on X.
Maphaz Ahmad Yousef, Suri's wife, is originally from Gaza but an American citizen now. The two got married on January 1, 2014, according to a Hindustan Times report.
Suri's father-in-law, Ahamed Yousef, was a former deputy foreign minister in the Hamas government in Gaza and later went on to head the House of Wisdom Institute (HoW) for conflict resolution, according to the HT report.
