By TwoCircles.net Staff Reporter,
Guwahati: Someone had rightly said that “It happens in only India”. Here is a supreme example of this when an Indian Army’s security personnel’s father was named as a Bangladeshi national. And hence an illegal resident.
“How can my son serve the Indian Army if I’m an illegal citizen?” said a shocked Ainul Miah of Udharbond sub-division of Cachar district of south Assam after he was declared as foreigner by Foreigners tribunal.
Ainul Miah who has been branded as illegal at his home.
However, this is not the first time as the octogenarian devout Bengali speaking Muslim has been questioned on his identity as an Indian. Earlier, in 2006 he had faced the same fate.
“Why the government is playing with my pride and esteem. I am not a millionaire I am just an ordinary poor Indian. Being poor snatched away my right of being an Indian. I want my pride back and would like to challenge the government on this fundamental right,” Miah added.
It was on September 29 in 1997 a senior inspector of Cachar police lodged a case before the district Superintend of Police stating that Ainul had migrated to India after March 25 in 1971 and has been staying in the country without valid documents.
The police and the foreign tribunal after checking and cross checking all the testimonies of Mia declared him as an Indian citizen. To his shock, Ainul Miah was served a fresh summon under the same allegation and was asked to appear before the tribunal in July, 2013.
Ironically for the second time in his life, the tribunal on December 7 declared Mia as a bona fide Indian citizen and not a foreigner after scrutinizing his proceedings.
The Citizen Rights Preservation Committee (CRPC) fighting for the cause of such victims in the state expressing shock on the bizarre incident stated that ‘this happens only in Assam’.
Advocate Anup Choudhury , state general secretary of the CRPC, highlighted that there are as many as 12,000 such ex parte cases in the state and the border police has been hinting that the High Court should not reopen such cases as that would lead to a ‘flood of cases’ to be solved.
Related:
From where have all the ‘Bangaldeshis’ come? A brief history of Muslims in Assam