Families of Indian students, mostly from Kashmir, who are stuck in Iran amid the conflict in West Asia following the killing of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, have appealed to authorities to help them return home.
Many students had returned in January during the unrest in Iran at the time due to massive protests. However, J&K Students’ Association (JKSA) national convenor Nasir Khuehami said two important exams — the Uloom-e-Paya (a basic sciences exam) and a pre-internship exam that is compulsory for medical students — were scheduled for March, making it necessary for the students to go back.
According to the J&K Students’ Association, over 1,100 Kashmiri students are currently in Iran.
Faizan Nabi, a Kashmiri student in Iran who had managed to return home before the attack in Tehran began, said that these exams were scheduled for March 5. They are now cancelled. “Many students were waiting to take this exam since these are crucial to complete the degree. They are national exams and not a matter of a single university. Therefore, it could not have been cancelled for a particular city and taken again,” he said.
A student at the Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Faizan returned to India last week. “There was no sense of a war breaking out in Tehran, and I came home to be with my family in Ramzan,” he said.
He said that during previous episodes of tensions, students were able to stay on. “This time, it is a lot scarier,” he said, adding that the Indian Embassy in Tehran had extended “remarkable support to us during the recent internal tensions and internet restrictions in Iran”.
Faizan said that at a time when uncertainty was high, embassy officials remained in constant touch. “From coordinating communication to overseeing our movement until we boarded our flight from Tehran airport, they handled everything with quiet efficiency and genuine concern,” he said.
He has not been able to check in on any of his classmates, as they remain cut off due to restrictions on communication.
Some students have been able to post video messages to social media prior to March 1, emphasising the urgency of the situation and seeking urgent help from the Centre to safely evacuate them.
Both of Sohael Mohammad Qadri’s children are studying medicine in Iran. After the Indian Embassy issued its advisory for Indian citizens to leave Iran, He says he urged both his son and daughter to leave the country. “My daughter came back, but my son said his university had not yet provided permission to leave owing to exams,” Qadri said.
He added that he has not been able to speak to his son since the attack and sought urgent help from the government.
Meanwhile, JKSA’s Khuehami said the association has appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar to “relocate the students stuck in Iran to safer locations” until a full evacuation can be conducted.
