The sky was glowing with streaks of sunshine and trails of smoke. The roar of fighter jets echoed throughout town as sirens wailed within the distance. From her fifth-floor dormitory in Tehran, the thunderclap of a close-by explosion shook the window panes. A repetitive cracking sound—gunfire, maybe—or one other blast close by.
That is how a 22-year-old MBBS pupil from Hyderabad, learning at Tehran College of Medical Sciences, described the evening of June 13. “We heard a loud thunder-like sound round 3:20 am,” she mentioned. “Then we noticed black smoke. Everybody began operating. I heard a fighter jet. Then we heard firing. It felt just like the struggle was actually over our heads.”
“The struggle wasn’t on tv. It was exterior my window,” she mentioned.
The coed, who has since been moved to Qom—about 200 kilometres from Tehran—for security, mentioned their dormitory skilled a blackout and college students had been unable to eat or sleep for 2 days. “Our dean got here on Friday and mentioned the dorm is the most secure place. However the state of affairs acquired worse. They began transferring college students to bunkers and basements again in Tehran throughout universities. We’re protected for now, however terrified.”
Because the Israel-Iran battle entered its fourth day Monday, Indian college students—many from Jammu and Kashmir—discovered themselves caught within the crossfire of a struggle between two nations they don’t have any stake in. “We’re simply right here to review,” the 22-year-old pupil mentioned. “And now we’re part of a struggle between two international locations we don’t even belong to.”
In a Rajya Sabha unstarred query answered on August 1, 2024, the Ministry of Exterior Affairs confirmed that, as of early 2024, there have been about 1,700 Indian college students in Iran, a lot of them enrolled in drugs at establishments like Tehran College of Medical Sciences, Shahid Beheshti College, and Islamic Azad College.
A 22-year-old second-year MBBS pupil from Kashmir at Tehran College of Medical Sciences mentioned her dormitory’s home windows shattered throughout one of many assaults. “I don’t even know precisely what’s occurring,” she mentioned. “However we’ve been awake for 4 nights now. As we speak they bombed a spot close to our college. It was actually dangerous.”
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One other pupil at Shahid Beheshti College mentioned they spent Saturday within the underground part of their residence. “The noise didn’t cease in any respect. The protection exercise is throughout us. It’s like dwelling in a struggle film, however we’re in it. We panicked for a day as a result of we heard that Iran’s defence system was down. We’re unable to make any motion.”
“The sky was stuffed with flashes final evening,” mentioned one second-year pupil. “Our universities are offering us with meals and different help, however we would like our authorities to provoke evacuation. We’re college students from different international locations who’re being evacuated again to their very own properties and we wish to request the federal government of India to do the identical.”
“I haven’t been in a position to keep up a correspondence with my household usually because the web connectivity could be very poor right here. My household could be very apprehensive about me. My mom has not stopped crying for 2 days now,” the scholar added.
On Sunday night, a strike close to the Hujjatdost dormitory for worldwide college students at Tehran College of Medical Sciences allegedly injured two Indian college students from Kashmir. Each are steady and had been shifted to Ramsar, in accordance with the Jammu and Kashmir College students Affiliation (JKSA).
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In a letter addressed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on June 16, the JKSA appealed for “pressing intervention and evacuation” of Indian college students from Iran, calling it a “humanitarian emergency.”
“These college students had traveled to Iran to pursue skilled training, notably MBBS, as a result of nation’s economically viable tutorial infrastructure,” the letter reads. “Now, they discover themselves in the course of an lively army zone, fearful for his or her lives.”
JKSA’s nationwide convenor Nasir Khuehami mentioned college students have reached out repeatedly to the Indian Embassy in Tehran looking for evacuation, however have obtained no concrete assurance. “Individuals from many international locations have already left,” the letter quotes a mum or dad as saying. “However our kids stay. No person is asking about us. We really feel deserted.”
Some universities have begun relocating college students to smaller cities like Qom and Ramsar, however many stay in high-risk areas. “We solely acquired moved after the bombing got here very shut and a few college students acquired harm,” mentioned the scholar now in Qom. “Till then, we had been informed to remain put within the dormitories or requested to method the Indian embassy.”
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Even because the MEA maintains that college students are being relocated in accordance with native advisories, many say they’re at the hours of darkness in regards to the subsequent steps. “We simply wish to go dwelling. Earlier than it’s too late,” the 22-year-old mentioned.
Amid rising tensions between Iran and Israel, the Indian Embassy in Tehran has facilitated the relocation of some Indian college students to safer areas inside Iran, the Ministry of Exterior Affairs mentioned Monday.
In response to evolving dangers, the Excessive Fee can be carefully monitoring the safety state of affairs and taking steps to make sure the protection of Indian nationals. “Different possible choices are additionally beneath examination. Additional updates will observe,” the assertion added.
The HC in Tehran mentioned, “The Embassy is in contact with neighborhood leaders relating to welfare and security.”
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The general Israeli demise toll has reached 22. At the very least 45 Iranian girls and youngsters have been killed and 75 others injured since Friday, authorities spokeswoman Fatemeh Mohajerani mentioned at a press convention in the present day. In accordance with Iran’s well being ministry, the overall demise toll from Israeli strikes has risen to a minimum of 224.
A army spokesman from Israel additionally mentioned that Israel had achieved aerial superiority over Iran and had destroyed greater than a 3rd of Iran’s surface-to-surface missile launchers. Indian college students are being relocated, in accordance with the MEA.