Bangladeshi student in Kolkata served a ”Leave India Notice”

News Desk

A Bangladeshi national studying in Kolkata was directed by home ministry to leave India for allegedly engaging in anti-government activities.

Afsara Anika Meem, 20, is an undergraduate student of the Visva Bharati University was served a ”Leave India Notice” by the Ministry of Home Affairs’ Foreigners’ Regional Registration Office in Kolkata. The letter was dated February 14 which she reportedly received also but it did not specify her fault. Similarly, in December, a German student at IIT Madras had to leave India for participating in anti-CAA protest.

The student, who hails from Kustia district of Bangladesh, got enrolled in the Bachelor of Design course at the varsity in 2018.

Afsara had reportedly visited the Foreigners Regional Registration office in Kolkata but has since been unavailable on phone. Her friends, said she is shocked to speak. Reportedly Afsara had posted photos of an anti-CAA protest on campus on her Facebook wall. Soon later she was trolled and called a Bangladeshi terrorist. The notice asked her to leave India within 15 days. The notice, was delivered under Section 3 of Foreigner Act 1946.

“… 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.

Politicians have termed this notice as baseless. “At the height of the British Raj, Indian students rallied 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,” said Mohammed Salim a CPM leader.

Massive protests have swept the country against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act or CAA which was cleared in parliament in December 2019.