00:00We are joined by aspiring medical students who have been evacuated from Iran by the government
00:09of India under Operation Sindhu today. We have with us an aspiring doctor Sabah Rasool from
00:16Sirianagar who returned to her home today. Thank you for joining us Sabah.
00:21Thank you so much for having me. So how much time it took you to reach Kashmir?
00:27It took us approximately four days. So can you explain to our viewers how you were evacuated?
00:36What was the process? First of all when the attack started we didn't take it seriously.
00:42We were like it will you know situation will get better in few days but unfortunately things got
00:48escalated and then we were in contact with the embassy. They asked for our details but we
00:56parents here were protesting for the evacuation but they said that till they don't get any
01:01orders from the MEA they can do anything. So we were waiting and we were fine. Iranian government
01:10helped us a lot. Our university officials helped us a lot. So the thing that when the things
01:18started escalating they said we are gonna relocate you not evacuate. We said where? In our minds
01:24it was Turkey because we are very near to Turkish border. They said no it will be Armenia. We were very hesitant.
01:31So when was it when did you shift to Armenia? It was on 16th. They told us this on 15th at about this time in Iran.
01:40We got the call from the embassy. They said that we want you guys to pack your necessary stuff. We said why?
01:47Because they said you didn't say you are evacuating. They said we are relocating you guys. We said we are to
01:53Turkey. They said no to Armenia. And we were like okay fine relocation maybe one week we will spend there
01:59and then we will be back in Iran because till then hopefully the situation will be fine. But it wasn't
02:05you know but the things happened the other way. So our evacuation was supposed to be at 6 in the morning.
02:13But that couldn't happen because we had some work in the university. Eventually we left the Urmia at about
02:20I guess 11 and we reached the Armenian border at about 5. We had the officials of Indian embassy from
02:30Tehran with us to the Armenian border. And when they left us at Armenian border then the Indian embassy of
02:37Armenia. Officers came from there. They took us from there. They did all the visa work. All the things
02:43they did for us which was necessary. But still we had to wait there for about 8 hours. It wasn't their
02:50mistake. It was because they had due to documentation with Armenia and other things. So ultimately they said
02:57that we are going to take you near to the embassy. We are Indian embassy and all the embassy in Armenia in
03:03the capital city of Armenia are located. We were taken there. It took us nearly 12 hours by bus.
03:10And then we were staying there. We thought okay we are here for one week. But the arrangements were
03:15very good. We were surprised by the arrangements. We haven't like expected that arrangements will be
03:22this good. So at night one of the officers from the Indian embassy came. He said that
03:30guys you have to pack your things. Your things are already packed. You are leaving tomorrow.
03:34We said why? Aren't we just relocated? Why is the evacuation happening? He said no as you guys are
03:40seeing the like situation in Tehran is worsening day by day. And foreign ministry of Tehran as well as
03:49MEA and the central government of India wants you back in India. You guys can't stay here anymore.
03:56So we just did these things and Indigo was our aircraft. Indigo came. They landed in Armenia at
04:05about I guess 10 in the morning and at 3 we departed from Armenia and we reached India today at 4 AM.
04:14And when we reached India till then our journey was very smooth. We were fine.
04:19We were welcomed by the officials. Can you explain to us the situation in Tehran especially in you
04:25where were you placed in Tehran? Yeah we are actually in the West Azerbaijan province in
04:32not in Tehran in Iran. It's like a separate like we have states they have provinces.
04:37We are in West Azerbaijan province and the capital city of that is Urmia and I'm from the Urmia
04:43University of Medical Sciences. So one attack first happened it happened outside the children's hospital
04:52in Urmia. Yeah fortunately all the children were safe but some locals died and many others were injured
04:59and then another attack happened at the airport and then another attack happened at about 3 AM in the
05:06night. We felt like that okay we have missile like on our dormitory. It felt like that. So yeah the things were like that.
05:16And you were all Kashmiri students? No we were Kashmiris, Pakistanis and Iraqis. We have an
05:23international dormitory where just internationals are living. So we were all Iraqis left before us
05:29because for them the land border was open. Then the Pakistanis got the permission to
05:34get out of Iran to go out of Iran. We are land borders and at the end we got permission but we
05:42don't have land border with Iran so we have to be airlifted. So it was like that but we were still
05:49hesitant to leave Iran. We didn't really wanted to. Why was it that you were hesitant to work on Iran?
05:54We were hesitant yeah worked on Iran because we have been there for four years. We have seen people of
06:00Iran. We know how they are. They are resilient. They are hospitality. You can see nowhere in the
06:06hospitality in the world like Iranian hospitality. Like they will do anything for you. So we know that
06:13we knew that how they are. We were like okay we are gonna leave. We are gonna go to our homes. What about
06:18them? They are gonna like suffer. We wanted to we were like okay if we can like help them in any way
06:25possible. We want to help them. But embassy didn't allow that. They said no you all have to leave. We are
06:31What help could you have provided to Iran? Like maybe to injured or in any way. In any way. We were
06:37ready to help in any way. It wasn't just like we are in clinicals. We can do some you know things. We can
06:44provide some basic medical care aid. We were ready to help in any way. But what was the situation
06:51outside on the road? The situation outside on the road no one was actually on the road. Roads were empty.
06:56It was first time. It was actually the occasion of Ede Gadeer which is like you know the biggest
07:03holiday in Iran. And but roads were empty. Shops were closed. No one was there as if like whole
07:09Steve was dead. And it was like all over the Iran. So everything was like that. And what was like your
07:16regular supplies like were the food or the water? We had the food. We have few supermarkets which
07:23were open. But apart from that if we needed anything which wasn't available our university
07:28officials used to get that for us. Even one night that was very terrible when that 3am attack happened
07:35one of our university officials actually for dormitory official he stayed in our dormitory for
07:40the night. He said I will be with you guys so that you don't feel alone. So this was like the situation.
07:46That's why we were hesitant to leave Iran because we know how they are. And we really respect them and
07:52love them. And what can we say about their leader? We just love them. We just love him. So it that was
07:58what I did. So this was one of the students among the wanting students who were evacuated from Iran to
08:08India this morning. Maazul Mohamad for UTV Ibarat in Srinagar.
Comments