NEW DELHI: The curious case of the Bangladeshi student leader Mahdi Hasan leaving India, has led to social media users guessing if he was given a quiet escape by the Indian authorities who have maintained silence on how the controversial Students Against Discrimination (SAD) leader was allowed to leave the country.
Hasan who had arrived in India on a valid visa issued by the Indian High Commission in Dhaka was spotted at the office of the VFS Global Visa Services.
In New Delhi’s KG Marg and a video of the same was shared on social media on Tuesday.
However, hours after the video went viral, Hasan uploaded another video on his Facebook account on Wednesday stating that he was harassed by a police officer at Delhi’s IGI airport.
“I am speaking from the Delhi airport. I have been taken in custody by police and they are harassing me. I will address a press conference when I reach Dhaka and share everything with the media. One policeman tried to physically abuse me and checked my phone. I asked to call the Bangladesh High Commissioner but later they said that they had detained a wrong person in custody due to a case of mistaken identity,” Hasan stated in a video that he had uploaded on Facebook while sitting at the Delhi airport.
He added that he wanted justice.
Speaking to TDG, a highly-placed source said that Hasan was questioned by officers of the Intelligence Bureau assisted by the CISF and later allowed to leave for Dhaka in a flight.
“He possibly got the visa to one of the Schengen countries but before he could leave, he was allowed to leave for Dhaka after questioning by IB officers,” said the source.
TDG contacted an officer at the office of the VFS Global Visa Services who acknowledged that Hasan had indeed visited the company’s office at KG Marg but did not confirm if he managed to get a visa for a Schengen country.
TDG spoke to Babu Ram, DIG (CISF) about the detention of Hasan but he said that he was not authorised to share any details with the media.
A senior Delhi police officer said that the police were not kept in loop on the questioning or detention of Hasan and “only the IB and CISF were involved.”
Meanwhile, a video of Hasan’s female partner has gone viral on social media in which she can be heard staying that she has been married to him for the past five-six months.
In the video, a person can be heard asking the woman if she entered a contract marriage with Hasan about three-four days back.
To this, she replies that she married him about “five-six months” back.
However, while Hasan returned to Dhaka on Wednesday evening, he was even photographed at the Dhaka airport alone without his female partner.
At the airport, he claimed that he was detained and harassed a lot by the officials at Delhi because he was a leader of the Students Against Discrimination group.
When asked how a visa was issued to Hasan who had himself admitted that he was part of a mob that killed a Hindu police officer in Bangladesh, a senior officer at the Indian High Commission in Bangladesh said that the XP division of the Ministry of External Affairs was informed about the matter.
MEA officials however did not comment despite repeated attempts to contact them.
However, India’s silence on quietly letting go Hasan has sparked a major debate on social media with several social media users questioning why he was allowed to go without any action.
“Arrest Police Killer Mahdi Hasan. India must not be a safe haven for terrorists. As tensions simmer across the border in Bangladesh following the violent 2024 anti-Hasina protests, a chilling figure from that chaos has surfaced in India: Ahmed Reza Hasan Mahdi, also known as Mahdi Hasan, the self-confessed killer of a Hindu police officer. Activists and intelligence watchers are raising alarms that Mahdi, a district-level leader of Bangladesh’s Anti-Discrimination Student Movement (SAD), is using Indian soil as a stepping stone to evade justice. With his passport details circulating online and reports placing him in Paharganj, New Delhi, awaiting a Portuguese visa, the question looms large: Why is India harbouring a man who openly boasted of burning a police officer alive?,” Probir Sarkar, a Bangladeshi national residing in USA wrote on X.
Another user questioned why India quietly allowed Hasan to escape stating that it will embolden anti-Hindu voices in Bangladesh.
The curious case of the Bangladeshi student leader Mahdi Hasan leaving India, has led to social media users guessing if he was given a quiet escape by the Indian authorities who have maintained silence on how the controversial Students Against Discrimination (SAD) leader was allowed to leave the country.
Hasan who had arrived in India on a valid visa issued by the Indian High Commission in Dhaka was spotted at the office of the VFS Global Visa Services.
In New Delhi’s KG Marg and a video of the same was shared on social media on Tuesday.
However, hours after the video went viral, Hasan uploaded another video on his Facebook account on Wednesday stating that he was harassed by a police officer at Delhi’s IGI airport.
“I am speaking from the Delhi airport. I have been taken in custody by police and they are harassing me. I will address a press conference when I reach Dhaka and share everything with the media. One policeman tried to physically abuse me and checked my phone. I asked to call the Bangladesh High Commissioner but later they said that they had detained a wrong person in custody due to a case of mistaken identity,” Hasan stated in a video that he had uploaded on Facebook while sitting at the Delhi airport.
He added that he wanted justice.
Speaking to TDG, a highly-placed source said that Hasan was questioned by officers of the Intelligence Bureau assisted by the CISF and later allowed to leave for Dhaka in a flight.
“He possibly got the visa to one of the Schengen countries but before he could leave, he was allowed to leave for Dhaka after questioning by IB officers,” said the source.
TDG contacted an officer at the office of the VFS Global Visa Services who acknowledged that Hasan had indeed visited the company’s office at KG Marg but did not confirm if he managed to get a visa for a Schengen country.
TDG spoke to Babu Ram, DIG (CISF) about the detention of Hasan but he said that he was not authorised to share any details with the media.
A senior Delhi police officer said that the police were not kept in loop on the questioning or detention of Hasan and “only the IB and CISF were involved.”
Meanwhile, a video of Hasan’s female partner has gone viral on social media in which she can be heard staying that she has been married to him for the past five-six months.
In the video, a person can be heard asking the woman if she entered a contract marriage with Hasan about three-four days back.
To this, she replies that she married him about “five-six months” back.
However, while Hasan returned to Dhaka on Wednesday evening, he was even photographed at the Dhaka airport alone without his female partner.
At the airport, he claimed that he was detained and harassed a lot by the officials at Delhi because he was a leader of the Students Against Discrimination group.
When asked how a visa was issued to Hasan who had himself admitted that he was part of a mob that killed a Hindu police officer in Bangladesh, a senior officer at the Indian High Commission in Bangladesh said that the XP division of the Ministry of External Affairs was informed about the matter.
MEA officials however did not comment despite repeated attempts to contact them.
However, India’s silence on quietly letting go Hasan has sparked a major debate on social media with several social media users questioning why he was allowed to go without any action.
“Arrest Police Killer Mahdi Hasan. India must not be a safe haven for terrorists. As tensions simmer across the border in Bangladesh following the violent 2024 anti-Hasina protests, a chilling figure from that chaos has surfaced in India: Ahmed Reza Hasan Mahdi, also known as Mahdi Hasan, the self-confessed killer of a Hindu police officer. Activists and intelligence watchers are raising alarms that Mahdi, a district-level leader of Bangladesh’s Anti-Discrimination Student Movement (SAD), is using Indian soil as a stepping stone to evade justice. With his passport details circulating online and reports placing him in Paharganj, New Delhi, awaiting a Portuguese visa, the question looms large: Why is India harbouring a man who openly boasted of burning a police officer alive?,” Probir Sarkar, a Bangladeshi national residing in USA wrote on X.
Another user questioned why India quietly allowed Hasan to escape stating that it will embolden anti-Hindu voices in Bangladesh.
A Bangladeshi SAD leader however confirmed that it was the Bangladeshi High Commission in India that helped Hasan leave India. Speaking to TDG, SAD Central President Rifat Rashid said that it was the officials at the Bangladeshi High Commission which helped Hasan leave India after “he faced online threats.”
