BENGALURU: Darkness fell over Iran on a cold Friday evening, and this time, it was one of the darkest nights the city has faced.
“It was 3:30 in the evening on June 13 — I will never forget that date or time. Just one kilometer from our dormitory, missiles fell. There was a boom, like thunder.
At first, we didn’t know what had happened. When we realized it was a missile strike, we were numb and shaken,” recalls 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.
Syed was among the batch of students evacuated from Iran and who landed on Sunday.
Shockwaves shattered the windows of Tehran’s buildings and the dormitory walls shook. “We first thought it was just an army vehicle or something,” he said. “But then the windows broke, the opposite building shook… we saw it with our own eyes. We saw the missile and air defence system, and understood it was serious.”
The Indian Embassy in Tehran was close by, but they couldn’t go. “We contacted the embassy. We called them and asked for help as the situation was getting worse,” Syed said.
Syeda Faize Zainab, who lived in District 6 of Tehran, remembers the chaos in her dormitory, running and hiding in the basement with the hope of saving her life. “There was bombardment and explosions all around, and we had to hide in the basements. We thought we would die, that it was the last night of our lives,” says Syeda.
By Saturday, the situation grew more tense. “We couldn’t sleep because of the explosions,” shares Syeda. “Then the Indian Embassy stepped in, relocating students from Tehran to cities of Qom and Yazd. They were very responsive and helped us with relocation and accommodation.
We were asked to stock up on food for 15 days. We stayed inside the dormitory the entire time, rushing down to the basement at the slightest sound. It was very scary when after a few days, our WhatsApp and Telegram stopped working, and we couldn’t contact our families.”
After two to three days, the situation in Qom was getting worse. “The Indian Embassy decided to relocate us to Mashhad. After one or two nights, they decided to evacuate us,” said 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.”
“Indian Embassy officials treated us like their own children, providing everything we needed and keeping us safe. They took care of us 24/7. We are so grateful to them, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar... Now we are safe in our homeland,” Syed said, his voice trembling. “But we wish our education is not halted, and the Iranian government helps us complete our education from here.”
“Around 40 to 50 students from Karnataka have left Iran and are either in transit or have already landed. While 22 to 25 students from Gauribidanur have arrived, the rest are from Alipur, Chikkaballapur, T Narsipur, Mysuru and Bengaluru,” said Arathi Krishna, Deputy Chairman of the NRI Forum, Government of Karnataka. “Almost 150 people in Iran are yet to return. They are being brought back in batches, with more expected to arrive on Monday on two different flights. Nearly 1,000 students from India are expected to return this way.”