BBC News, Delhi
It was an invitation of a classmate 15 years ago who changed the life of Badar Khan Suri, an Indian scholar who now faces a deportation from the US for charges of terrorism.
That summer evening, Mr Suri was sitting in front of his department at Jamia Millia Islami’s Delhi University, when the classmate announced that he had set out to Gaza in international aid – Palestinian territory governed by an armed Islamist group Hamas and Under blockade by Israel.
Conflict Studies, a caravan over 150 people from several Asian countries, has been a chance once in their lives to witness one of the world’s most controversial disputes.
Mr. Suri happily agreed to participate, the classmate recalled the BBC.
During this trip, he met Mapheza Saleh, Palestine and daughter of former Hamas advisor, with whom he married a few months later.
After living in Delhi for almost a decade, the couple moved to the US where Mr. Suri joined the prestigious Georgetown University as a postdoctoral associate.
Lived in Virginia for almost three years when Police knocked on his door On the evening of March 17 and arrested him.
Three days later, March 20, Tricia McLaughlin, Assistant Secretary of the Ministry of Homeland Security, tweeted that Mr. Suri was detained for his “close relationship with a famous or suspicious terrorist, senior Hamas counselor.” He denied the allegations.
This action follows the suppression of President Donald Trump about illegal immigrants and activists involved in the protest of the Pro-Palestinian campus who accused the authorities of encouraging anti-Semitism and support for Hamas. The group has now appointed a terrorist organization. India, however, did not ban Hamas.
Although Mr. Suri, who legally entered the student visa legally, blocked his deportation by the US court, the terrorist allegations shocked those who knew him home.
His acquaintances describe him as a soft, shy and diligent student with wide knowledge of the world, while his classmates and teachers said they had found allegations that he had to do with Hamas with “tank”.
India has historically supported the Palestinian matter. But it has also developed close, strategic ties with Israel in recent years, with Delhi often refraining from criticizing Israel’s procedures.
Even then, “in any part of the imagination can be sung to anything illegal,” one of his Jamia professors told the BBC.
“Having a view of a conflict that is underway is not a crime. As a scientist in the Conflict Study, in his professional term, it is good to share his analysis of the Gaza war.”
Those who followed him on the trip had similar views.
Ferose Mithiborwal, one of the organizers of the caravan, remembered Mr. Suria as an intelligent, young man.
“He always took a secular attitude in our discussions. He was not a right -wing Islamist type of character,” he said.
The trip began in December 2010 from Delhi. While the Indian neighbor Pakistan refused to give a passenger license to the group, the convoy had to travel to Iran, Turkey, Syria and Egypt before he finally arrived in Gaza.
The route, most of which covered the bus, offered many students of peace and conflict, one of Mr Suria’s friends who also went on a tour.
Throughout the trip, he was deeply touched by suffering, which he testified in Gaza and focused on providing assistance to widows and the elderly, he added.
The caravan, in many ways, “brought in Mr Suri Palestinian cause,” but his occupation was largely an academic one, said another classmate who was in contact with him until a few days before his arrest.
The second and last time Mr. Suri went to Gaza was for his own wedding with Mrs. Saleh.
American citizen, Mrs. Saleh worked as a translator at the time and volunteered in Gaza.
Her father, who lived in the United States, is former adviser Ismail Haniyeh, the leader of Hamas who killed Israel last year, according to a statement she filed in court.
In 2010, her father left the Gaza Gaza and “started the house of wisdom in 2011 to encourage peace and resolution of conflict in Gaza,” she adds.
When Mrs. Saleh and Mr. Suri first met, they did not speak much. But again they connected a few months later, said a friend who followed him on the BBC caravan.
Their wedding made titles In India, while the couple moved to Delhi and continued to live there for about eight years.
Mrs. Saleh enrolled in the master’s degree in Jamia, and later worked at the Qatar Embassy. In 2023, Suri moved to the US, and Mrs. Saleh followed him.
He was several months after the end of community when he was arrested.
Mr. Suria’s father said it hurt when he saw his son in this situation.
“Has nothing to do with Hamas or Palestine [other than his marriage]. His sin is that he is married to the Palestinian woman, “he said.
But he hopes his son will not be deported. “After all, these are just the allegations. There is no evidence of any injustice,” he added.
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