The family of a retired honorary lieutenant of the Indian Army has been declared a foreigner and sent to a detention centre in Assam. He has moved the Gauhati High Court against the move on Wednesday, reported The Hindu.
As reported by the Scroll, Mohammed Sanaullah (52) retired as subedar with the Corps of Electronics and Mechanical Engineers of Indian Army in August 2017. On Tuesday, he was arrested by Assam Border Police in Guwahati, which is tasked to identify doubtful citizens as well as illegal immigrants, and taken to the detention centre for illegal immigrants in Goalpara.
Various Foreigners’ Tribunals hear and dispose of the cases of such individuals.
Sanaullah who was serving as an assistant sub-inspector in the Border Police, was served a notice by the Boko Foreigners’ Tribunal in 2018.
The New Indian Express reported that retired Junior Commissioned Officer Md Ajmal Haque, who is one of the petitioners, told that Sanaullah was born in 1967 in Assam and he joined the Army in 1987. The report added that after his retirement in 2017 as an honorary lieutenant, he had joined the Border Police and was serving as an ASI.
Md Ajmal Haque lamented, ‘this is the reward of his 30 years of selfless service in the Army during which he had also fought in the Kargil War. This is a sad day for ex-servicemen like us.’
Ajmal revealed that Sanaullah had mistakenly mentioned the year of his joining the Army as 1978. “Based on the gaffe, the Foreigners’ Tribunal declared him a foreigner” arguing that nobody can join the Army at the age of 11 years.
Because of the pending foreigners’ tribunal case against him, Sanaullah and his family’s name were put on hold in the draft National Register of Citizens.