NEW DELHI: With no signs of any let-up in the raging crisis in Iran, an unspecified number of Indian medical students stranded at the Kerman University of Medical Sciences in Southeast Iran have sent an SOS stating they were running out of food supplies, said the All India All India Medical Students Association (AIMSA).
AISMA national representative Dr Mohammad Momin Khan said students’ anxiety in volatile Iran has been heightened by dwindling food supplies.
The association reported receiving more than 18 distress calls from Indian students on Friday and Saturday, with the majority coming from 32 students stranded at Isfahan University of Medical Sciences in central Iran.
Over 1,000 students from India, a majority from J & K, are still in Iran spread across cities there.
Nearly 100 Indian medical students of the Shiraz Institute of Medical Sciences in southwestern Iran remain sheltering in the basement of their university hostel amid ongoing explosions. Most are in their 4th and final year of MBBS.
Separately, nearly 500 students accommodated in hotels in Qom by the Indian Embassy have also reported hearing blasts since Sunday night. “Students called me late last night, crying. Some witnessed three explosions right in front of them and are extremely frightened,” said Dr Khan. These students were relocated from Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, and Iran University of Medical Sciences.
Meanwhile, parents of stranded students staged a protest at Pratap Park near Press Colony in Srinagar, demanding that the Centre ensure their children’s safe evacuation. The All India Students’ Medical Association (AISMA) has again urged the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) to take immediate steps to repatriate all Indian students in Iran.
A majority of the roughly 1,000 students still in Iran are from Jammu & Kashmir. People’s Democratic Party president Mehbooba Mufti appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on X, urging his personal intervention to ensure their safe return and calling on External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar to initiate evacuation efforts immediately.
