AUGUST 4, 2019 • THE WEEK 29Amjad and another witness,
Subhan Ali, have lodged a complaint
against the investigating officer in
Sanaullah’s case. “This is how they
are labelling several lakhs of Indians
as Bangladeshis,” said Subhan, 70.
“Our village is proud to have a brave
soldier like Sanaullah, who served in
the Kargil war.”
Sanaullah, however, told THE
WEEK that he had not participated
in the Kargil war. “When Kargil broke
out, I was posted out of Kashmir to
Hyderabad. But it is true that I served
in Kashmir thrice in six years—be-
fore and after the Kargil war,” he said.
He said it would have been better
had he been killed by militants in
Kashmir or Manipur. “I would then
have got the respect that I am not
getting today. Many would have shed
tears seeing my dead body. But see
where I am today; I have lost my hon-
our,” he said.
Will the public support for Sanaul-
lah result in him getting a permanent
reprieve? “It is very difficult, but not
impossible,” said Rahman. “One
can go to a higher court against the
tribunal’s order, but that would be a
writ petition and no appeal would
be granted. Even the Supreme Court
has refused to entertain an appeal.
In the writ petition, the higher court
will not accept new evidence. Only
the evidence that was taken up by
the tribunal will be reexamined. If
mistakes are found, there is a pro-
vision to send the case back to the
tribunal.”
Rahman said it would be a legal
disaster if the Supreme Court did
not step in and make provision for
hearing a large number of appeals.
“Thousands of courts have been cre-
ated in Assam to hear the cases relat-
ed to people who would be declared
foreigners,” he said. “But all such
cases will be writ petitions. Under
Article 226 of the Constitution, [new]
factual evidence in writ petitions is
not investigated by High Courts and
the Supreme Court.”
Sources in the Assam government
told THE WEEK that many serving
and retired Armymen are in the listof suspects being tried by the foreign-
ers’ tribunal. “There are personnel
from the Army, the central armed
police forces and even the Assam
Police. But such cases are not numer-
ous,” said a police officer.
Ajmal Haque said there were
plenty of instances where the
border police had made a mockery
of procedures. “The investigating
officers would not even get out of
their offices to meet the accused,”
he said. “Their intention is to drive
out the Bengali-speaking Hindus
and Muslims from Assam. While
the Central government has given a
lollipop in the form of Citizenship
(Amendment) Bill to silence Hindus,
Muslims find themselves without
any representation in the admin-
istration. We are living in the dark
completely.”SOLIDARITY SANS BORDERS
Congress workers in West Bengal
protesting the NRC outside Assam
House in Kolkata