Ex-army JCO from Assam asked to prove he is an Indian citizen

The reports came to light after the foreigner’s tribunal in Assam’s Kamrup district has summoned Mohammad Azmal Haque, who was appointed as the Junior Commissioned Officer (JCO) in the Indian Army by former President APJ Abdul Kalam , to appear before the court on October 13 next with documents to prove that he is an Indian citizen.

Azmal Haque, a retired ex-army engineer, received a notice from the foreigner’s tribunal last month asking him to appear before the court with documents that he is not an illegal migrant from Bangladesh living in India and an Indian citizen by birth.

The foreigner’s tribunal asked Azmal to appear before the court before Sept 11 in the case no BFT 1082/2016, but he received the notice after the expiry date.

Later, Azmal received another notice from the foreigner’s tribunal and asking him to appear before the court on October 13 next.

Earlier Azmal’s wife Mumtaz Begum had also to go through the same process in 2012, when Azmal was serving in Chandigarh as a mechanical engineer.

The notice sent to Azmal Haque states that he was came in India illegally after 1971 from Bangladesh.

But, Azmal Haque said that, his father Maqbool Ali was an Indian citizen.

“This incident has saddened me a lot. My father’s name was in the 1966 voter’s list and have the kheraj patta from 1963. My mother Rahimon Nesa’s name was also included in the 1951 National Register of Citizens (NRC). I was served the Indian Army for 30 years. I am an Indian,” Azmal Haque said.

On the other hand, a Guwahati based lawyer Aman Wadud has shared some documents of Azmal Haque’s family on Twitter and said that Azmal Haque was born in Kamrup district in 1968.

The lawyer also mentioned that, Azmal Haque now lives at Kolosikash village under Chaygaon police station in Kamrup district. Azmal Haque joined the Indian Army in 1986 as a mechanical engineer and he was appointed as a JCO by former President APJ Abdul Kalam on January 19, 2003 in the rank of Naib-Subedar.

The lawyer said that, Azmal Haque’s son studies in the prestigious Rashtriya Indian Military College in Dehradun.

Earlier, a foreigner’s tribunal had summoned an Assam Police constable Abu Taher Ahmed from South Salmara police station in Assam-Bangladesh bordering district Dhubri, to prove that he is an Indian citizen. Later the tribunal held him an Indian citizen.

(Reporting by Hemanta Kumar Nath)