Nationality row: Kargil war veteran walks free from detention camp in Assam

GUWAHATI: A day after the Gauhati High Court granted him bail, retired Kargil war veteran Mohammad Sanaullah on Saturday walked free from a detention camp in Goalpara district in the state.

The veteran Army Captain was detained by the border wing of the Assam Police last month after a Foreigners' Tribunal in Assam declared him a "foreigner" and sent him to a detention camp in Goalpara district in Western Assam.

On Friday, a divisional bench of the Gauhati High Court granted bail to Sanaullah after hearing the arguments of his counsel Indira Jaising and several others. The court, however, asked him not to leave the territorial jurisdiction of Kamrup and Kamrup Metropolitan districts without informing the border police.

The High Court bench headed by Justice Manojit Bhuyan and Justice P.K. Deka also issued notices to the Union of India, the state of Assam, the Defence Ministry, the investigating officer of the Assam Police in this case and the authorities of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam.

Sanaullah, a resident of Kalahikash village under Boko in Assam's Kamrup district, was born in 1967 and joined the Indian Army in 1987. He served in the Army for 30 years before retiring as an Honorary Captain in 2017. He also received a Presidents' Award when he was commissioned as a Junior Commissioned Officer (JCO) in the Indian Army in 2014.