GUWAHATI: Khairul Islam has been very busy for the past three days responding to phone calls from friends and acquaintances. This former schoolteacher from central Assam’s Morigaon district was pushed into Bangladesh along with 13 other “illegal immigrants” on May 24.He returned home two days ago after, what he claimed, the Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) handed him and six others back to India, stating that they are not Bangladeshi nationals.Islam, who is in his fifties, was declared a foreigner by a foreigners’ tribunal in 2018. He challenged this in the Gauhati High Court but it upheld the tribunal’s judgment. Foreigners’ tribunals are quasi-judicial bodies which deal with the cases of suspected foreigners.After he lost his case in the High Court, the police arrested him and sent him to a detention centre. He walked out on bail after two years in 2020 when the Supreme Court issued an order to decongest jails in the wake of Covid pandemic.Islam told this newspaper on Saturday that he had then moved the Supreme Court and his case is still pending. He lamented that he was deported although the apex court is yet to deliver a judgment.He said he had spent two days in Bangladesh and he did not face any problem there. “The BGB had formally handed seven of us over to the BSF. The BSF did not protest it,” Islam said. “I have no idea if the remaining seven are in Bangladesh or India,” he added.Islam said following his handover, he was under the care of Assam Police until returning home two days ago. “The joys of my family members knew no bounds when I arrived home. I am feeling very relaxed now. I celebrated Eid. I had no idea that I would be able to celebrate Eid at home after deportation,” he said.Meanwhile, CM Himanta Biswa Sarma has said the process of identifying foreigners will now move at a faster pace.
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