Guwahati: If media reports are to be believed, an ex-army engineer has been asked by the foreigners tribunal to prove that he is an Indian citizen. Appointed as the Junior Commissioned Officer in the Indian Army by former President APJ Abdul Kalam and now retired after having served the forces for 30 years, ex-armyman Mohammad Azmal Haque has been asked to appear before foreigners tribunal on October 13 with documents to prove that he is not an illegal migrant from Bangladesh living in India.
Media reports claimed that Azmal Haque’s wife Mumtaz Begum had to go through the same process in 2012 when Azmal Haque was still a mechanical engineer with the Indian Army serving at Chandigarh.
Azmal Haque received a notice from the Foreigner’s Tribunal last month asking him to appear before it with documents that may prove that he is a citizen of India by birth. The notice had asked Azmal Haque to present his case before September 11. But, the notice landed his place after the expiry of date.
Azmal Haque got another notice later asking him to appear before the foreigners tribunal in Guwahati on October 13. The tribunal has listed him in the category of ‘doubtful voters’.
The summons sent to Azmal Haque states that he arrived in India after 1971 following the political and national upheaval in Bangladesh. But, Azmal Haque has a different story to tell. According to Azmal Haque, his father Maqbool Ali was an Indian citizen.
Maqbool Ali’s name, according to Azmal Haque, was in the 1966 voter’s list and also in village surveys in done in 1961-62. He says he has the kheraj patta from 1963. His mother Rahimon Nesa’s name was mentioned in the 1951 National Register of Citizens (NRC).
Now, a lawyer by the name of Aman Wadud has shared some documents of Azmal Haque’s family on Twitter to prove his Indian roots. According to one of the documents, Azmal Haque was born in Kamrup district in 1968. Now retired from the Indian Army, he lives at Kalahikash, Guwahati.
Azmal joined the Indian Army in 1986 as a mechanical engineer. Another document shows that the former President Kalam appointed him as a Junior Commissioned Officer (JCO) in the rank of Naib Subedar in 2003 during Atal Bihari Vajpayee government. He retired last year as JCO.
