CHANDIGARH: Seven youths from Punjab and Haryana who went on a tourist visa to Russia have appealed to the Centre to help them return to India safely, saying they have been forcefully inducted into their armed forces to fight with Ukraine.
Their families are demanding that their children be rescued from the conflict zone. The Punjab government on Thursday wrote a letter to the ministry of external affairs requesting that the youths be brought back safely. In a video that went viral on platform ‘X’, the seven youths, visibly dressed in Russian soldiers’ uniforms, pleaded to the Indian government to bring back them.
Gagandeep Singh, 23, son of a farmer from Beriwal Kiran village in Gurdaspur district of Punjab, along with his friends went to Russia in December last year on a tourist visa for a holiday and there he was told to join the Russian army to fight with the Ukraine forces.
Balwinder Kaur, mother of Gagandeep, says,”Yesterday we got a phone call from the Indian embassy in Russia who asked all the details of my son which we gave to them and requested them to get him back home as we now hope we will be rescued.”
Gurpreet Singh from Hartha village of Hoshiarpur went to Russia for 16 day trip on December 22. His younger brother Amrit Singh told this newspaper, “The army officers made them sign a contract written in Russian language, following which they were sent for some military training.
As they were told either you work for us one year or you will be handsomely paid or you have to serve 10 years jail.’’ The others are Lovepreet Singh (24), Narain Singh (22), Gurpreet Singh (21) and Harsh Kumar (20) and Abhishek Kumar (21).
CBI busts network recruiting for war
The CBI on Thursday claimed that it has busted a major human trafficking network, targeting gullible youths on the promise of lucrative jobs abroad. The trafficked Indian nationals were trained for combat roles and deployed on the frontlines in Russia-Ukraine war zone against their wishes, putting their lives in grave danger, the official said.