Daijiworld Media Network - El Paso (SHP)

El Paso, Sep 27: On Thursday, Ashok Kumar (33), who was on a 70-day hunger strike over the rejection of asylum claim won temporary release. He walked away from the detention centre with an ankle bracelet. The tracking device was one of the conditions of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) following his release.

Kumar was detained in El Paso, Texas where he was force-fed food to his stomach with a pipe through his nose. He broke his hunger strike after being promised temporary release. Kumar lost over 23 kgs in the course of the hunger-strike.

US District Court Judge, Frank Montalvo reluctantly granted permission to force-feed a practice rejected by global human rights groups and medical ethics guidelines saying he had no other choice or Kumar would die.

Earlier in the year, Kumar sought asylum because he feared torture from the BJP. According to him, the BJP in the past had beaten him badly enough to be bedridden for a month. Kumar was tortured for promoting an opposition party, Indian Lok Dal party. Concerning which, Kumar included a doctor's note in his asylum application.

On July 8, Kumar and another Indian detainee Gurjant Singh began their hunger strike after being rejected an asylum. They had spent almost a year in an ICE detention facility and were not charged with crime. They believe the judge did not consider the facts of their cases individually. Besides, the immigration judge had alleged the reasons for seeking asylum to be incredulous.

Kumar few weeks into the hunger strike had declared to a press conference that he would rather starve to death than go back to India.

Post his release, Kumar was ordered to stay with a human rights advocate in Las Cruces, New Mexico. During this time, he can gain weight and continue to fight for his case of seeking asylum.