Two senior Unani medicine doctors in Madhya Pradesh's capital Bhopal are waiting with bated breath for the rescue of Indian medical students from war-torn Iran.
While Dr Ehsan Azmi (medical officer at Bhopal's Government HSZH Unani Medical College) is keeping fingers crossed for the safe return of his medical second year (fourth semester) student daughter Areej Ehsan, equally concerned is Dr Shahid Khan (a medical officer at Unani Shifakhana, Bhopal) whose son Mohd Haris Khan fourth year (eighth semester) medical student in Tehran.
Both Areej and Mohd Haris are MBBS students of the same institution — Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences in Tehran.
"Before Monday, my daughter said it seemed they were surviving in the jaws of death and destruction. But from Monday, the Indian Embassy in Tehran started working on a war footing to rescue the Indian students via the Indian Medical Students Association in the Iranian capital. We were particularly concerned about the safety of children, as there are reports that some of the nuclear scientists who were killed in the barrage of Israeli strikes, were actually from the Shahid Beheshti University only," Dr Azmi told The New Indian Express on Friday, June 20.
Hailing originally from Azamgarh district of eastern UP, Dr Azmi said, "We had a slight sigh of relief when we came to know about the students, including my daughter, having been shifted by the Indian Embassy from war ravaged Tehran to Qom city (around 160 km from Tehran) on June 15. As per the latest information in the closed social media group of parents of Indian medical students in Iran, our children have been shifted to northeastern Iran's Mashhad city, which is close to Iran's border with Turkmenistan and relatively peaceful. Three special flights will take off from there on Friday night, Saturday morning and evening. I hope to meet my daughter in Delhi by Saturday," he added.
While daughter's safe return is currently his top priority, Dr Azmi is also concerned about her medical education career's future. "The attacks happened in the middle of the examinations, we don't know what future holds in store, how will their academic future be addressed if the war continues for long. For the time being, all I can say is that the Indian Embassy is managing the students very efficiently and speedily."
The other Bhopal-based senior Unani medicine doctor, Dr Shahid Khan, is equally concerned about his son's academic future, particularly as he is in the penultimate year of the five-year (tenth semester) medical education course.
"There are around 600-700 Indian students, 95% of whom are medical students, stuck in Iran's Mashhad city. We've been informed that they will be safely rescued by Saturday. These students are from three Tehran-based government medical universities, including Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, and Iran University of Medical Sciences. We won't be able to sleep soundly till our children return home safely."
"Five-six days back, we were in deep fear, when told by my son that there were sounds of bombardment all over in Tehran. All over, there were missile strikes and deafening sounds of explosions. Now we are relatively relieved, but still in a state of panic until they return home safely. The Embassy officials have advised all Indian students not to share pictures or details of their locations for security reasons," Dr Khan said, according to the report by The New Indian Express.
