Indian researcher in US Badar Khan Suri detained, faces deportation, is accused of having connection with…

Badar Khan Suri is the second Indian to face deportation over alleged involvement in the pro-Palestinian causes that swept the US campuses

Written by: Nivedita Dash Edited by: Nivedita Dash

Updated: March 20, 2025, 11:52 AM IST

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https://www.india.com/news/world/indian-researcher-in-us-detained-faces-deportation-is-accused-of-having-connection-with-7695698/ Copy

Indian researcher in US faces deportation, is accused of having connection with...

An Indian national enrolled as a postdoctoral fellow in the US has been detained by immigration authorities, said a media report, less than a week after a Columbia student from India self-deported following allegations of activities supporting Hamas.

Badar Khan Suri was detained from outside his home in a Washington suburb in Virginia State by “masked” officers who told him that his student visa had been revoked, according to his lawyer quoted by Politico.

Suri, who has a PhD from Jamia Milia University in New Delhi, was a post-doctoral fellow at Georgetown University, where he was teaching a course on “Majoritarianism and Minority Rights in South Asia”.

He is married to a US citizen, Maphaz Ahmad Yousef, the daughter of Ahmed Yousef, who was described in a Hindustan Time article quoted by Politico as “a senior political advisor to the Hamas leadership”.

The lawyer Hassan Ahmad told Politico that a habeas corpus appeal has been filed in a federal court in Virginia.

Suri is the second Indian to face deportation over alleged involvement in the pro-Palestinian causes that swept the US campuses.

Earlier this month, Ranjani Srinivasan, a PhD student at Columbia University in New York fled to Canada, effectively self-deporting herself after an immigration officer came looking for her saying her student visa was cancelled.

Homeland Security Department accused her of being “involved in activities supporting Hamas, a terrorist organisation”.

Unlike in Srinivasan’s case and that of two others who have also been arrested over allegations of participating in campus protests and face deportation, President Donald Trump’s administration has not said anything about Suri’s arrest.

Politico reported that Ahmad said in his petition to the court that Suri was targeted because of his wife’s Palestinian heritage and the government suspects that they both oppose support for Israel.

According to his lawyer, Suri does not have a criminal record. It was not clear if he had participated in protests.