Post-doctoral fellow Badar Khan Suri was taken into custody by “masked agents” outside his Virginia residence on Monday evening.
According to his attorney, immigration officials have detained an Indian researcher who is enrolled at Georgetown University in the United States and could deport him. Politico said “masked agents” arrested post-doctoral fellow Badar Khan Suri outside his Virginia home Monday evening.
According to the lawsuit, the officers told him the government had revoked his visa after identifying themselves as belonging to the Department of Homeland Security.
It has been alleged that Mr. Suri is “spreading Hamas propaganda”. “Close connections to a known or suspected terrorist” are claims made against him.
“Suri was a Georgetown University foreign exchange student who actively promoted antisemitism and Hamas propaganda on social media,” Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security Tricia McLaughlin wrote on X.
“A well-known or suspected terrorist who serves as a top counselor to Hamas is closely associated with Suriya. On March 15, 2025, the Secretary of State issued a decision declaring that Suri was deportable under INA section 237(a)(4)(C)(i) due to his actions and presence in the country.
In his appeal, Hassan Ahmad, Mr. Suri’s attorney, said that Mr. Suri is being punished due to his wife’s Palestinian ancestry, who is a US citizen, Politico reported. First-year student Mapheze Saleh hails from Gaza and attends Georgetown University’s Center for Contemporary Arab Studies. She graduated with a bachelor’s degree in journalism and information from the Islamic University of Gaza in Palestine. She then went on to the Nelson Mandela Centre for Peace and Conflict Resolution at Jamia Millia Islamia in New Delhi, India, to obtain a master’s degree in conflict analysis and peacebuilding.
A Georgetown spokeswoman claimed in a statement that Dr. Khan Suri, an Indian national, was properly given a visa to enter the United States in order to pursue his doctoral studies on peacebuilding in Iraq and Afghanistan. “He has not engaged in any unlawful behavior that we are aware of, and we have not been given an explanation for his imprisonment. Even though the underlying concepts may be challenging, contentious, or offensive, we endorse our community members’ rights to free and open research, conversation, and debate. We anticipate that the legal system will decide this case in a fair manner.
Identifying Badar Khan Suri
At Georgetown University’s Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, the Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding in Washington, DC, Dr. Badar Khan Suri has a postdoctoral fellowship. This semester, he has been instructing a course on “Majoritarianism and Minority Rights in South Asia”
At the Nelson Mandela Center for Peace and Conflict Resolution, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, he earned his doctorate in peace and conflict studies in 2020.
The Georgetown University website states that he is an interdisciplinary scholar with a focus on religion, violence, and peace; ethnic conflicts, and peace processes in the Middle East and South Asia.
US Indians Are at Risk of Deportation
A 37-year-old Indian student named Ranjani Srinivasan, who is enrolled in Columbia University’s doctorate program in urban planning, self-deported last week, just days after their student visa was cancelled for taking part in pro-Palestine demonstrations. On March 5, the US Department of State revoked their visa, claiming security concerns over their alleged role in “supporting Hamas” activities.
“Ranjani Srinivasan supported the terrorist group Hamas through his actions. The Department of State cancelled her visa on March 5, 2025. She self-deported on March 11 via the Customs and Border Protection (CPB) agency app, according to video evidence that the Department of Homeland Security has obtained,” the agency stated in a statement.
Those who “advocate terrorism and violence” should not remain in the United States, according to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who referred to Srinivasan as a “terrorist sympathiser” in a post on X.
