Neyaz Faroquee
BBC News, Delhi
Bbc
Badar Khan Suri, a scholar of conflict studies, was arrested on March 17 for terrorist accusations
It is an invitation from a classmate 15 years ago who changed the life of Badar Khan Suri, an Indian scholar now faced with the expulsion of the United States on terrorist accusations.
That evening, Mr. Suri was sitting before his department at Delhi Jamia Millia Islamia when a classmate announced that an international aid convoy should go to Gaza-the Palestinian territory led by the Islamist group armed Hamas and sub-plan by Israel.
For students of conflict studies, the caravan – of more than 150 people from several Asian countries – has offered a unique opportunity to sit on one of the most controversial differences in the world closely.
Mr. Suri happily agreed to participate, a classmate recalled at the BBC.
It was during this trip that he met Mapheze Saleh, a Palestinian and the daughter of a former Hamas adviser, that he married a few months later.
After having lived in Delhi for almost a decade, the couple moved to the United States where Mr. Suri joined the prestigious University of Georgetown as a postdoctoral scholarship holder.
He had lived in Virginia for almost three years when the police hit his door on the evening of March 17 and arrested him.
Three days later, on March 20, Tricia McLaughlin, deputy secretary of the Department of Internal Security, tweeted that Mr. Suri was detained for his “close ties with a known or suspected terrorist, Hamas’ principal advisor”. He denied allegations.
This action follows President Donald Trump’s repression against illegal immigrants and activists involved in pro-Palestinian demonstrations on the campus that the authorities have accused of having fueled anti-Semitism and of supporting Hamas. The group is appointed a terrorist organization by the United States. India, however, has not prohibited Hamas.
Although Mr. Suri, who has legally entered the United States on a student visa, had his deportation blocked by an American courtyard, terrorist allegations shocked those who know him at home.
Mr. Suri was part of the international humanitarian caravan which visited Gaza in 2010
His knowledge described him as a student with a soft, shy and hardworking voice with a wide knowledge of the world, while his classmates and his teachers said that they had found allegations of his ties with “Tenu” Hamas.
India has historically supported the Palestinian cause. But he has also developed close and strategic links with Israel in recent years, Delhi often refrained from criticizing the actions of Israel.
Even then, “without imagination cannot be associated with all that is illegal,” said one of his Jamia teachers at the BBC.
“Having a point of view on the current conflict is not a crime. As a scholarship holder of conflict, he is indeed in his professional mandate to share his analysis of the war in Gaza.”
Those who accompanied her during the trip had similar opinions.
Feroze Mithiborwala, one of the organizers of the caravan, remembered Mr. Suri as an intelligent young man.
“He has always taken a secular position in our discussions. It was not a type of right Islamist character,” he said.
The trip started in December 2010 from Delhi. While the neighbor of India, Pakistan, refused to give a travel permit to the group, the convoy had to go to Iran, Turkey, Syria and Egypt before finally reaching Gaza.
The route, most of which was covered by the bus, offered a lot for a student in peace and conflicts, one of Mr. Suri’s friends who also tour.
Throughout the trip, he was deeply moved by the suffering he witnessed in Gaza and focused on providing aid to the elderly and the elderly, he added.
The caravan, in many ways, “brought Mr. Suri closer to the Palestinian cause”, but his interest was largely academic, said another classmate who was in contact with him until days before his arrest.
Mr. Suri and Ms. Saleh were married in 2013 and moved to Delhi
The second and last time Mr. Suri went to Gaza was for his own marriage to Ms. Saleh.
American citizen, Ms. Saleh worked as a translator and volunteer in Gaza at the time.
Her father, who lived in the United States, is a former Ismail Haniyeh adviser, the head of Hamas killed by Israel last year, according to a statement submitted by him.
In 2010, his father left the government of Gaza and “started the House of Wisdom in 2011 to encourage peace and conflict resolution in Gaza,” he added.
When Ms. Saleh and Mr. Suri met for the first time, they did not speak much. But they connected again a few months later, a friend who accompanied him on the caravan told the BBC.
Their marriage made the headlines in India, while the couple returned to Delhi and continued to live there for about eight years.
Ms. Saleh signed up for a master’s degree in Jamia and then worked at the Qatar Embassy. In 2023, Mr. Suri moved to the United States and Ms. Saleh followed him.
It was up to months to finish his scholarship when he was arrested.
Mr. Suri’s father said it had raised him to see his son in this situation.
“He has no connection with Hamas or Palestine (other than his marriage). His sin is that he is married to a Palestinian,” he said.
But he hopes that his son will not be expelled. “After all, these are only allegations. There are no evidence of reprehensible acts,” he added.
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