Darkness fell over Iran on a cold Friday morning, June 20, but this time, it became the darkest night the city has faced.
“It was 3:30 in the evening on June 13 — I will never forget that date, I will never forget that time. Just one kilometer away from our dormitory, the missiles were launched. There was a boom, like thunder. At first, we didn’t know what had happened, until we realized it was a missile strike. We were numb, shaken, not knowing what to do,” exclaimed Syed Mohsin Raza from Alipur, a second-semester MBBS student at Shahid Beheshti University, who was staying in District 3, where the bombing initially began, according to the report by The New Indian Express.
Syed was among the batch of students who were evacuated from Iran and was landed on Sunday, June 22.
The windows of Tehrain’s building shattered from the shockwaves, and the walls of the dormitory trembled. “We thought maybe it was just some army vehicle or something common in Iran,” he recalled. “But then the windows broke, the opposite building shook… we saw it with our own eyes. That’s when we understood it was serious,”he shared, adding, “We saw everything, we saw the missile and the air defence system with our own eyes. After that, we contacted the Indian Embassy. We found out that there’s an Indian Embassy in Tehran, the nearest one to us, but we couldn’t go. We had their numbers. We called them and asked what to do now. The situation was getting worse.” gasped Syed
While at the same time, Syeda Faize Zainab, who stayed in District 6 of Tehran, remembers the chaos at her dormitory, running and hiding in the basements with a slight hope of saving her life.
“There were bombardments and sounds of explosions all around, and we had to hide in the basements, gasping for our lives. We thought we would die, that it was the last night of our lives,” remembers Syeda.
By Saturday, the situation grew more tense. “We couldn't sleep due to the sound of explosions,” shares Syeda. “And then the Indian Embassy stepped in ,relocating students from Tehran to cities like Qom and Yazd. They were very responsive. Whenever we called, they picked up. They helped us with relocation, accommodation and everything,” she shared.
“We were asked to stock up on food for 15 days, and we did. We stayed inside the dormitory the entire time, rushing down to the basement at the slightest sound to save our lives,” she shared. “The worst part was, after a few days, our WhatsApp and Telegram stopped working,we couldn’t contact our families. It was very scary.”
After two to three days, the situation in Qom was getting worse. “The Indian Embassy thus decided to relocate us to Mashhad. After one or two nights, they decided to evacuate us” shared Syed “We were told we could get evacuated through the communist-controlled border. But there was some issue. So we were taken by air once the airspace reopened” added Syeda.
“The Indian Embassy treated us like their own children, providing everything we needed and keeping us safe. They took care of us 24/7, never overlooking even the littlest things. We are so grateful to them, our Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and the External Affairs Minister, S Jaishankar,” shared Syed. “Now we are safe in our homeland because of them,” he shared, as his voice trembled.
“But we wish that our education is not halted, that government will help us to complete our education from our homeland” he concludes, according to the report by The New Indian Express.
“Around 40 to 50 students from Karnataka have left Iran and are either in transit or have already landed. About 22 to 25 students from Gauribidanur have arrived, while the rest are from Alipur, Chikkaballapur, T Narsipur, Mysuru, and Bengaluru,” said Arathi Krishna, Deputy Chairman of the NRI Forum, Government of Karnataka. “We still have close to 150 people in Iran who are yet to return. They are being brought back in batches, with more expected to arrive tomorrow (Monday) on two different flights. Nearly 1,000 students from India are expected to return this way.”
