Former Army subedar arrested as Assam tribunal declares him ‘foreigner’ 

Mohammad Sanaullah.

New Delhi: A retired Army subedar, Mohammad Sanaullah, was detained, on Tuesday, in Assam after a foreigners’ tribunal declared him a “foreign national”.

Notably, Sanaullah retired as subedar with the Corps of Electronics and Mechanical Engineers of Indian Army in August 2017. He said in his testimony at the foreigners’ tribunal that he served in insurgency-affected areas of Jammu & Kashmir and the northeast.

The FTs, which are around 100 in Assam, are quasi-judicial bodies meant to “furnish opinion on the question as to whether a person is or is not a ‘foreigner’ within the meaning of Foreigners Act, 1946”.

He has been declared a foreigner by Foreigners’ Tribunal No. 2 Kamrup (Rural) on May 23 this year. His family members as well as lawyer stated that Sanaullah’s Indian citizenship can be proved easily as his ancestors were Indian nationals and their documents would help. Besides, his ancestors document he had been employed with the Indian Army. After his retirement, Sanaullah joined as sub-inspector with Assam Police’s border wing – a special wing that deals with detention of illegal migrants in the state.

After former Indian Army personnel got arrested, additional SP of Kamrup, Sanjib Saikia, told Indian Express, “The FT declared him a foreigner and we are complying with the law.”

Sanaullah’s lawyer said, he was kept in police custody in Guwahati after being detained, on Tuesday, and was sent to a detention centre in Kokrajhar, on Wednesday afternoon. Sanaullah had received the notice from FT last year and first appeared at the tribunal on September 25, 2018.

Shahid Akhtar,18, Sanaullah’s son, who studies at a college in Guwahati, said, “The FT order was arbitrary. We will challenge it.” The first point mentioned by the FT order states that Sanaullah submitted that he had joined service in 1978 and questions that if he was born in 1967, how he got the job when he was 11 years old. The order also asks if he had joined service in 1987, then why was his name not enrolled in the voters’ list of 1986, since he had by then “attained the age of 20 years”.

Lawyer Sahidul Islam said, “In his written affidavit he stated that he joined the Army in 1987 [actual year of joining]. Orally, during cross-examination, also he said 1987, but it was recorded wrongly as 1978 by court officials. We could not oppose it then because his signature was taken on a blank paper.”

Islam said Sanaullah and his family have multiple citizenship documents, like names of family members in voters’ list from 1966, 1970 and 1977; his own matriculation certificate; and father’s land documents, among others.

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