BBC News, Delhi
BBCIt was an invitation from a classmate 15 years ago that changed the life of Badar Khan Suri, an Indian scholar now facing deportation from the US over accusations he is linked to a Hamas member.
On that summer evening, Mr Suri had been sitting outside his department at Delhi’s Jamia Millia Islamia university when a classmate announced that an international aid convoy was set to go to Gaza – the Palestinian territory run by the armed Islamist group Hamas and under blockade by Israel.
To students of conflict studies, the caravan – of more than 150 people from several Asian countries – offered a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to witness one of the world’s most contentious disputes up close.
Mr Suri happily agreed to participate, a classmate recalled to the BBC.
It was during this trip that he met Mapheze Saleh, a Palestinian and the daughter of a former Hamas adviser, 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 fellow.
He had been living in Virginia for nearly three years when the police knocked on his door on the evening of 17 March and arrested him.
Three days later, on 20 March, Tricia McLaughlin, the assistant secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, tweeted that Mr Suri was being detained for his “close connections to a known or suspected terrorist, a senior adviser to Hamas”. He has denied the allegations.
This action follows President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigrants and activists involved in pro-Palestinian campus protests which authorities have accused of fuelling antisemitism and supporting Hamas. The group is designated a terrorist organisation by the US. India, however, has not banned Hamas.
Although Mr Suri, who entered the US legally on a student visa, has had his deportation blocked by a US court, the Trump administration’s allegations have shocked those who know him back home.
His acquaintances describe him as a soft-spoken, shy and hardworking student with a broad knowledge of the world, while his classmates and teachers said they found allegations of him having ties with Hamas “tenuous”.
India has historically supported the Palestinian cause. But it has also developed close, strategic ties with Israel in recent years, with Delhi often refraining from criticising Israel’s actions.
Even then, “by no stretch of imagination can Suri be associated with anything unlawful”, one of his professors from Jamia told the BBC.
“Having a view on the ongoing conflict is not a crime. As a conflict studies scholar, it is well within his professional mandate to share his analysis of the war in Gaza.”
Those who accompanied him on the trip held similar views.
Feroze Mithiborwala, one of the organisers of the caravan, remembered Mr Suri as an intelligent, young man.
“He always took a secular stance in our discussions. He was not some right-wing Islamist type of character,” he said.
The trip began in December 2010 from Delhi. As India’s neighbour Pakistan refused to give a travel permit to the group, the convoy had to travel to Iran, Turkey, Syria and Egypt before finally reaching Gaza.
The route, most of which was covered by bus, offered much for a student of peace and conflict studies, one of Mr Suri’s friends who also went on the tour said.
Throughout the trip, he was deeply moved by the sufferings he witnessed in Gaza and focused on providing aid to the widowed and elderly, he added.
The caravan, in many ways, “brought Mr Suri closer to the Palestinian cause”, but his interest was largely academic, said another classmate who was in touch with him until days before his arrest.
The second and the last time Mr Suri went to Gaza was for his own wedding with Ms Saleh.
A US citizen, Ms Saleh had been working as a translator and volunteer in Gaza at that time.
Her father, who has lived in the US, is a former adviser to Ismail Haniyeh, the Hamas leader killed by Israel last year, according to a statement submitted by her in court.
In 2010, her father left the Gaza government and “started the House of Wisdom in 2011 to encourage peace and conflict resolution in Gaza”, it adds.
When Ms Saleh and Mr Suri first met, they did not speak much. But they connected again a few months later, a friend who accompanied him on the caravan told the BBC.
Their wedding made headlines in India, as the couple moved back to Delhi and continued to live there for about eight years.
Ms Saleh enrolled herself for a masters degree in Jamia and later worked at the Qatar embassy. In 2023, Mr Suri moved to the US and Ms Saleh followed him.
He was months away from completing his fellowship when he was arrested.
Mr Suri’s father said it pained him to see his son in this situation.
“He has no connections with Hamas or Palestine [other than his marriage]. His sin is that he is married to a Palestinian woman,” he said.
But he is hopeful that his son will not be deported. “After all, these are merely allegations. There is no proof of any wrongdoing,” he added.
