Woman Denied Travel to Bangladesh for Not Showing Name in 2002 SIR List
WB woman, fails to show her name in '02 SIR list, denied B'desh trip; Family writes to Shah
Kolkata: A woman from Murshidabad in West Bengal has allegedly been denied by the immigration officials of visiting Bangladesh on her Indian passport after she failed to show them before leaving the country her name in the 2002 special intensive revision (SIR) list.
The woman, Afrina Hasnat, is a resident of Gorabazar at Berhampore. Her father, Mir Hasnat, a homeopathy doctor, later lodged a complaint with the Murshidabad district magistrate (DM) and union home minister Amit Shah about the incident.
On October 29, Ms Hasnat boarded a Dhaka-bound bus from Kolkata with a two-month tourist visa to meet her relatives in Bangladesh. The bus halted at Petrapole integrated check post on the India-Bangladesh border.
Ms Hasnat said, “The immigration officials, while seeing my passport, asked me if it was my first foreign visit. I replied ‘Yes.’ Next they sought proof of my name in the 2002 SIR list and my Madhyamik admit card.” She however did not have any of them with her then and there.
The 36-year-old woman added, “I told them my passport is the biggest proof of my Indian citizenship.” She also showed the immigration officials her Aadhar Card from her cellphone and dialled her 73-year-old father who tried to speak to them but failed.
Denied further travel, the woman returned home. Mr Hasnat said, “I narrated the incident in letters to the DM and union home minister. Born in India, I have been serving people as a doctor in Berhampore for the last 50 years but never thought of facing such a situation.”
