Kasaragod: Fashion Gold Jewellery MD Pookoya Thangal surrender in court

New York: 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's lawyer claimed that he is being punished “because of the Palestinian heritage of his wife — who is a US citizen — and because the government suspects that he and his wife oppose US foreign policy toward Israel.”

He is a former student of Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi.

Suri is currently a postdoctoral fellow at the Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at the Edmund A Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University, Washington DC.

A report in Politico said that Suri, who was studying and teaching on a student visa, has been “detained by federal immigration authorities amid the Trump administration’s crackdown on student activists whom the government accuses of opposing American foreign policy.”

The report said that “masked agents” arrested Suri from outside his home in Virginia Monday night.

A petition filed by his lawyer Hassan Ahmad said that he was taken to a facility in Virginia and is “expected to be transferred soon to a detention centre in Texas.”

The Politico report said that Suri’s lawyer has filed a lawsuit for his immediate release.

“The agents identified themselves as being with the Department of Homeland Security and told him the government had revoked his visa,” the lawsuit says, according to the Politico report.

The report added that according to Suri’s petition, he was put in “deportation proceedings under the same rarely used provision of immigration law” that the government has invoked to try to deport Mahmoud Khalil, the Columbia University graduate and legal permanent resident arrested for his role in leading campus protests at Columbia against Israel. 

The petition says the couple has “long been doxxed and smeared” on anonymously run, far-right websites due to their support for Palestinian rights. The petition adds that Suri’s wife Mapheze Saleh has been alleged to have “ties with Hamas” and once worked for Al Jazeera.

The petition further notes that Suri has no criminal record and has not been charged with a crime. Ahmad said he had not been able to contact Suri as of Wednesday evening.

“We’re trying to speak with him. That hasn’t happened yet,” Ahmad said.

“This is just another example of our government abducting people the same way they abducted Khalil.”

According to his profile on the website of Georgetown University, Suri completed his PhD in Peace & Conflict Studies from Nelson Mandela Center for Peace and Conflict Resolution, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi in 2020. 

He wrote his thesis on Transitional Democracy, Divided Societies and Prospects for Peace: A Study of State Building in Afghanistan and Iraq in which he underlined the complexities involved in introducing democracy in ethnically diverse societies; as well as challenges to project state building.

He has travelled extensively in the conflict zones of India, Pakistan, Balochistan in Iran, Iran, Turkey, Kurdish Areas in Turkey, Syria, Lebanon and its southern region, Egypt and Palestine.  

The Politico report quoted a statement from a Georgetown spokesperson as saying that Suri is an "Indian national who was duly granted a visa to enter the United States to continue his doctoral research on peacebuilding in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"We are not aware of him engaging in any illegal activity, and we have not received a reason for his detention. We support our community members’ rights to free and open inquiry, deliberation and debate, even if the underlying ideas may be difficult, controversial or objectionable. We expect the legal system to adjudicate this case fairly," the spokesperson said.

Suri's detention comes less than a week after Ranjani Srinivasan, an Indian student at Columbia University, self-deported after her visa was revoked for allegedly “advocating for violence and terrorism” and involvement in activities supporting Hamas.

Srinivasan had entered the United States on an F-1 student visa as a doctoral student in Urban Planning at Columbia University, the Department of Homeland Security had said.

It added that Srinivasan was “involved in activities supporting” Hamas, a terrorist organisation.

The Department of State had revoked her visa on March 5. The Department of Homeland Security said it has obtained video footage of Srinivasan using the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Home App to self-deport on March 11. 

Jaipur: A 25-year-old man was allegedly strangled to death in Rajasthan's Dausa district for trying to stop three men from applying colour on him ahead of Holi, police said on Thursday.

The incident was reported from Ralwas village on Wednesday evening when Ashok, Bablu and Kaluram reached a local library to apply colour on Hansraj, who was preparing for competitive exams there, officials said.

As Hansraj refused to be smeared with colours, the trio kicked him and thrashed him with belts, before one of them strangled him to death, Additional Superintendent of Police (ASP) Dinesh Agarwal said.

The angry family members and villagers later staged a protest with Hansraj's body, blocking a national highway in the area that continued till 1 am on Thursday.

The protesters demanded a compensation of Rs 50 lakh to Hansraj's family, a government job to one member of the family, and immediate arrest of the accused trio.

The body was finally removed from the highway after police assurance.

Mangaluru: Parents in coastal Karnataka are facing a significant financial burden as private schools across the region have implemented a sharp 20% or higher fee hike for the new academic year. This marks a drastic increase compared to the 6-15% annual hikes over the past four years. Schools justify the rise by citing increased teacher salaries and rising operational costs.

A parent from a CBSE school in Moodbidri reported that last year, his child's school fee was Rs 23,000, excluding transport and books. This year, it has jumped to Rs 29,000. "Fees for all classes in our school have been hiked by Rs 6,000," he shared.

Similarly, Jean D'Souza, whose two children study at an ICSE school in Mangaluru, said the school has increased fees by Rs 5,000 this year, from Rs 46,000 to Rs 51,000. Another parent from an ICSE school on the outskirts of the city reported a 20% hike and urged the government to intervene and regulate school fee increases.

Additional Costs Add to Parents’ Burden

Parents highlighted that beyond tuition fees, they also bear expenses for transport, uniforms, and books. Monthly transport fees range between Rs 1,500 and Rs 2,500, while book costs amount to Rs 5,000 to Rs 6,000 per child annually. However, some relief comes from schools allowing fee payments in installments. "Many schools permit two to four installments, which helps ease the financial strain for parents," said a school management representative.

Schools Defend the Fee Hike

A school principal explained the reasons behind the steep fee increase this year. "Most schools refrained from major fee hikes after the pandemic. However, teacher salary demands have increased, and with a shortage of trained educators, retaining them is difficult without annual pay raises," he said.

Other rising costs include electricity, water, building maintenance, government fees, and general operational expenses. School managements argue that these factors make the fee hike necessary to sustain quality education.

While parents express frustration over the rising costs, the debate over striking a balance between affordability and sustaining quality education continues. Many now call for government intervention to regulate private school fee structures, ensuring that education remains accessible to all families.