BH CORRESPONDENT, Kolkata: Remember the time when Bangladeshi actors Ferdous and Gazi Abdun Noor were told to leave India. Well, now it’s time for Afsara Anika Meem, a Bangladeshi of designer student of Visva-Bharati University to leave India after the government issued her a notice.
The Union Home Ministry has ordered her to leave the country for ‘anti-government activities’ after she allegedly shared some posts on social media related to anti-Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) protests on the campus last December.
Earlier, same incident happened in Chennai after a German exchange student attended CAA protest in IIT Madras. He was also sent back by Ministry of Home Affairs for his alleged “anti-government activities”.
Afsara is a student of Visva-Bharati University, studying Bachelor in Design (BDes). Sources said a notice asking her to leave the country was slapped on Afsara by the Foreigners’ Regional Registration Office (FRRO), Kolkata. She has been given a deadline of 15 days to leave the country.
However, the notice didn’t give any information about the “anti-government” activity.
“Whereas Afsara Anika Meem, holder of Bangladesh passport is present in India on the strength of S-1 (student) visa studying a course on Bachelor of Design at Visva-Bharati University, West Bengal. And whereas 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 read.
“… The foreigner shall not remain in India, shall depart from India within 15 days of receipt of this order,” it said, warning that she would be prosecuted under the Foreigners Act, 1946, if the deadline was not adhered to.
A Students Federation of India (SFI) leader said Meem — who enrolled for the course in 2018 — received the notice dated February 14 on Wednesday and has got in touch with advocate Shamim Ahmed.
