This Article is From Feb 28, 2020

Bangladeshi Student Asked To Leave India For "Anti-Government Activities"

In December, a German student at IIT Madras was forced to leave India for participating in an anti-CAA protest.

Bangladeshi Student Asked To Leave India For 'Anti-Government Activities'

The Home Ministry notice was reportedly received by the Bangladeshi student on Wednesday. (File)

Kolkata:

A 20-year-old Bangladeshi student of the Visva Bharati University in Kolkata has been asked by Home Ministry to leave the country for allegedly engaging in "anti-government activities".

Afsara Anika Meem, an undergraduate student at the central university, was served a ''Leave India Notice'' by the Ministry of Home Affairs' Foreigners' Regional Registration Office in Kolkata in a letter dated February 14 which she reportedly received on Wednesday.

She had reportedly visited the Foreigners Regional Registration office in Kolkata on Thursday but has since been unavailable on phone. Friends, who are in touch with her, say she is too shocked and scared to talk.

In December, Afsara Meem had posted some photos of an anti-CAA protest at Shantiniketan on Facebook. She was trolled for the posts and called a "Bangladeshi terrorist".

There is, however, no mention of her Facebook post in the Foreigners Regional Registration Officer's 'Leave India Notice', which has asked her to leave India within 15 days from the date of its receipt.

"... She is found to have engaged in anti-government activities. And such activity being a breach of her visa, has thus, committed visa violation," the notice reads.

"... The foreigner shall not remain in India, shall depart from India within 15 days of receipt of this order," it further says.

CPM leader Mohammed Salim said visa rules do not debar any student from being politically active, it only bars students from taking part in political activity in a foreign country.

"At the height of the British Raj, Indian students rallied for for independence in London on the London Majlis platform. Leaders like Jyoti Basu, Bhupesh Gupta and others. Mujibur Rehman was a student in Kolkata when he started fighting for his country's freedom," Mohammed Salim said.

"This government is scared and they are jeopardising our special relationship with Bangladesh," he added.

In December, a German student at IIT Madras was forced to leave India for participating in an anti-CAA protest.

Massive protests have swept the country against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act or CAA which cleared parliament in December. While government says it will provide citizenship to minorities from three Muslim-majority countries - Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan, critics have called it anti-Muslim.

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