- 13 hours ago
In this edition of India Today Global, watch Geeta Mohan's exclusive ground report from Iran as Sikh community living in Tehran speaks about life amid war and how Iranians are slowly rebuilding their homes that were destroyed in the US-Israeli strikes.
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00:2948-hour deadline yet again, but the proposal has a lot of details.
00:34There was a 10-point proposal, went to 11, now 14-point is what Iran had sent to America
00:40and that has also now been amended and sent back by America to Iran.
00:44Iran is looking at the details of the proposal.
00:49Once they come to an understanding, there is going to be an MOU that will be signed between the two
00:54sides
00:54and then finally an agreement.
00:56But what Iran says, according to what I understand from my sources I've been speaking to Iran,
01:01is this, that nuclear talks are off the table when it comes to this part of the conversation,
01:07that a framework will be discussed and decided to further then after the deal is signed,
01:13have a conversation and have negotiations on the nuclear front.
01:16Enriched uranium will not leave Iran no matter what the position of America is.
01:22One of the officials I was interviewing, a former IRGC commander, had very clearly said
01:28that it was the late supreme leader, Khamenei, who in a fatwa had said that nuclear enrichment in Iran
01:36should only be used for peaceful purposes and not for weapons.
01:39So that's important messaging and in all probability the conversation on that front when it comes to nuclear
01:45will move to beyond the deal or after the deal.
01:48When it comes to the Strait of Hormuz, status has changed completely.
01:52That again will be discussed, that's on the table.
01:55And one of the most important aspects of the conversation are war reparations.
01:59How is America and its allies, how are they really going to pay for the damages that Iran has suffered
02:07during the war?
02:09So all this is going to be part of the conversations.
02:11We'll have to wait and see whether if they're going to move ahead with talks
02:15or whether if Trump will walk the talk on his threats.
02:39Far away from any military headquarter or Tehran in Charbagh, this was a villa and a precise missile strike struck
02:50this villa
02:50which had 15 people and 11 members of that family absolutely wiped out.
02:58We are told one of them was an IRGC or a military officer but not of a very high rank.
03:05But this is a major loss.
03:08A lot of people over here say it's an absolute wipe out of an entire lineage, a family.
03:15The youngest one was just 14 months old and the oldest about 75 years old.
03:21Children, couple, their parents, all of them gone over here.
03:26And it's precisely one month to date.
03:29It was on the 7th of April that the missile struck this residence.
03:34And people are still looking for the remains of the family members or the people who died over here.
03:44We were shooting, we were here looking at things and talking to people when the man who's responsible or heading
03:53the operation to really look for body parts just found a small part of a body, maybe a remain of
04:03one of the children over here.
04:06They have been mourned for a month.
04:09There are photos that have been put of the entire family.
04:11And if you look at the wall over there, you'll see the entire family over here put out from the
04:17youngest child to the oldest.
04:19If I could ask Satya to turn the camera around and show the posters that have been put out.
04:25This is the wall and all the family members over here have been put.
04:30It was a sight that's heartbreaking.
04:33Why?
04:34Because even today, people from the community are coming to clear the debris.
04:39And certainly a lot of questions being asked.
04:43Why civilians?
04:45Why children?
04:47There was the Minab School.
04:49There are civilians who have been killed in residential areas.
04:54This is not just the cost of war.
04:56The implication of what happens during war, what happens afterward.
05:02How many of them over here will actually forget and more importantly forgive?
05:09Is there a result of what happens during war?
05:30What happens during war is that it has a bit of tension.
05:30I know that the people who have all over here all revolutionized the streets of the city are the ones
05:30that they had to get.
05:30They can have everything that has citizenship to us today.
05:32They can get something from the young people that have been made by these little shows.
05:33We see, there are bloodbaconites.
05:37There are so many people who have died during war.
05:40I'm here is a person in charge of searching and inspecting and trying to find everything
05:47around here and they are just working here for 28 for 29 days and they are still finding
05:53as you just film it and you have got to take in the picture and they are just finding
05:58something new.
06:09The only things we could just do, just um, the only things we could just do, just um,
06:29managing and organizing the people, what the, we can also say that almost all things are
06:37just done by the people.
06:38We just observe, we were just observing it.
06:41They did everything, they just sweep the floor, ground, I don't know, setting the tables, morning,
06:49there were around 3000 people, they gathered together to organize and just to have the
06:57memorial ceremony for them and we just, we were just seeing and observing what they are
07:05just doing and that was the only thing we could just do.
07:09The people just did the most of the things, maybe we can say all of the things.
07:31The Sikh community that we were just talking about, a very important community because it just shows how inclusive Iran
07:42is, unlike
07:43what is projected outside.
07:46Despite all the adversity, they stayed here.
07:49This is maybe five generations down, Saheb Sinji, and she's been here 28 years with her husband, her children, they're
07:57all here, working here.
07:58They came back, while they were traveling, they came back during the 12 day war.
08:03They did not stay out of the country, they did not wish to leave what today is their homeland.
08:11And they've made their own little world over here when it comes to their community.
08:17The community service during the war, the Gurudwara served a lot of people.
08:22So we'll talk about that with these people as to why is it that they're here in Iran.
08:29What makes Iran so special for the Sikh community to be here to serve, not just themselves, the people in
08:37Tehran as well.
08:38Thank you so much. Thank you.
08:39Saheb Sinji, sit here.
08:46She's in fact a teacher and if you could introduce yourself and tell me what really happened when you heard
08:56that there's a war that's coming,
08:58what did the Sikh community do apart from the fact that you've not left?
09:04We didn't do much because there was a 12 days war before also, so we were very much in Tehran.
09:13And yeah, we left to outskirts, but we were all together, all united, the whole community was together.
09:20And this time when it happened, we didn't panic because we knew that the country was strong.
09:29It will say tall and strong as of Iran.
09:33And we were very much home.
09:35We were very much home.
09:37We'd never left our places.
09:38We were home.
09:39There was nothing that was less for us during the war and all was in peace.
09:47I would just like to give this message to my Indian friends, my family, that believe me, we did not
09:55suffer any of what is being projected.
09:59I don't know what is happening out there because the only thing that I know is that we were very
10:05safe.
10:06The community was together.
10:08We were all in the Gurudwara coming, visiting, going.
10:12We were meeting each other during the war time.
10:15And I felt, if you ask me personally, I never felt anything.
10:21The only void I have is of my principal since I'm taking the school charge about it.
10:29We'll talk about it.
10:30So the Gurudwara does not just have a Gurudwara.
10:33It also has a school right behind where the Indian community students study.
10:38It's a CBSE syllabus.
10:40Very, very important to note how when I say that they have their own community, their education system, so on
10:48and so forth,
10:48all of them speak perfect Hindi and Punjabi.
10:52So very important over here to see how the community stood together.
10:58But what was also important is the fact that they served the people during the long war.
11:05We saw the 12 day war because we saw the visuals of them serving the community.
11:11What makes you serve the community the way you do?
11:16That makes us quite strong enough to face this situation.
11:20Like my wife said, during the 12 days war, we were here.
11:25Although we went to the outskirts, there was a lot of bombing going on.
11:30But what the Indian media was showing, I think that was totally ridiculous,
11:35about which we really don't agree and accept.
11:39The fact is that we were at peace, although we were all together with my friends, with all the colleagues.
11:46At one point, we were even, you know, staying in the Gurdwara.
11:51Like there were a couple of families who said that we are a bit afraid of what is happening and
11:57all.
11:57We said, okay, you please come over here.
11:59And we stayed in the Gurdwara for quite some time.
12:02And also during the second phase of the war, we were still here.
12:09We didn't flee the country and we didn't flee even to the outskirts.
12:12We stayed here with our families, stayed united.
12:15That makes our Sikh community so strong and the Indian community in general so strong.
12:22In 2012, when I was here to cover the NAM summit, Dr. Manmohan Singh was the Prime Minister then.
12:29Correct.
12:29And he did visit and meet with the Sikh community.
12:33That's how historically tied Iran is with India.
12:39That we have a base, we have a home and we have an entire community over here.
12:45Not just in Tehran, in some other parts as well.
12:47But primarily, Sahib Singh Ji, in Tehran, right?
12:51We are in Tehran.
12:52Actually, Dr. Manmohan Singh never visited Gurdwara.
12:54He never visited Gurdwara.
12:56No.
12:56He met.
12:57He met.
12:58And his wife came, but Mr. Modi, he came to Gurdwara.
13:02Yeah.
13:03Prime Minister Narendra Modi, when he visited Iran, he actually came to the Gurdwara.
13:08And we heard that when he arrived in Iran, first thing he did was he came to Gurdwara.
13:14Afterwards, he went for all his official meetings.
13:16What we heard.
13:17That's the importance that this government attaches to its soft power policy.
13:25That the Indian community or Indian origin community anywhere in the world is top priority.
13:33And the administration, Prime Minister Modi, has always emphasized and made sure that he connects with the community.
13:40And also, the instructions are clear, if they need help, if they need anything, that that should be provided and
13:48that should be paramount for the embassies and the missions in those parts of the world, including Tehran.
14:11We are here at Charbagh, this is the Tabriz Tehran Railway Line.
14:16And this is the bridge which was hit with precision strike from Israel.
14:23Four bombs hit this to shut off this arterial Tabriz Tehran Railway Line as also the underpass.
14:32That's also an arterial road.
14:34And we are here to see what really happened after.
14:38In just 40 days, you see, the railway track has been laid down all over again.
14:45The road underneath also reconstructed.
14:49Traffic is moving normally.
14:51We will be speaking to the mayor of Charbagh, which is where this city, this place is.
14:59And to understand what really happened over here, the before and after visuals are for you to see.
15:06Massive explosion.
15:07The entire thing had come down.
15:09There was a car that was buried under the rubble.
15:12A lot of them injured.
15:14They were all rushed, taken out, pulled out of the rubble and rushed to the hospital.
15:19And now we are seeing an absolutely reconstructed railway track.
15:24There was a test that was done a while ago to see whether if this is okay for a rail
15:29to really move on these tracks.
15:33And it does seem like it's ready.
15:35And they are not just using this railway track.
15:38They are now widening the track as well.
15:41This is opportunity and adversity.
15:44If I could ask Satya to show the camera around.
15:47And you see over there, that's the widened line over there.
15:51And so there is now going to be a widened railway line that will go across from here up till
15:57there.
15:57You see the tracks on both the ends.
15:59That's the second track now that's being constructed.
16:02And that will come through this area.
16:05This actually shows that a country at war also needs to be reactive and react very, very fast.
16:13The first responders came over here.
16:16We'll be speaking to a few of them and a few workers to understand what really happened over here.
16:21But it is very important in terms of messaging that they have not,
16:27even after the top leadership of the country was taken out and taken down,
16:31they did not stop reconstructing immediately to ensure that nothing collapses,
16:37not even the infrastructure of Iran.
16:58It was destroyed by four bombs and built in 40 days.
17:02This is the arterial Tabriz Tehran railway line.
17:05And I'm being joined by the mayor of Charbagh, which is where this railway line is, Mayor Mousavi.
17:11Thank you so much for joining us, sir.
17:13Let's begin with 40 days to construct this.
17:16How did you make that happen?
17:18First of all, let me tell you what happened and what happened.
17:23Thank you very much for your work.
17:26First of all, I would like to thank you for coming to our city.
17:29Welcome to our city.
17:30We are here.
17:31We are here at one and a half of the hour.
17:34The airport was here at one and twenty minutes,
17:35when this airport was an important connection between the country and the country,
17:41the city of Tabriz, and Resh.
17:43To begin making it, it says that we want to welcome you to just come and visit us,
17:48empathy and sympathize with us.
17:51And secondly, it was 1-20 pm that was the strike happened.
17:57Immediately after the strike, unfortunately we just lost one and wounded severely for others.
18:06Somehow we can say some up to three people. One of them was during just getting to the hospital and
18:13just died.
18:13After that, his mother died. The son name was 19-year-old Sina and we feel so sorry for her.
18:25By the way, our employees have 11 weeks of emergency services and emergency services.
18:40We have been in the Middle East.
18:43We have been in the Middle East and we have been in the Middle East.
18:45We have been in the Middle East.
18:46Immediately after that, all the organization, our mental and anyone that just got aid or help,
18:53help us just try to evacuate it. 11 people, Red Crescent, I don't know, any kind of people
19:01from the hospital, from jihadis, volunteer people just try to help them. And after that
19:06exactly or precisely after 40 hours we could just reconstruct it. That would be great to
19:13do that in 40 hours. And we could just make a temporary passage for the railway train to
19:20just pass through.
19:21This is a matter of time, we had to know what is happening with an environment. And that
19:29is how we have to achieve a process. And these places have come from, we have to
19:35develop a major on the local business industry and it comes from this development within
19:37two cities, the railway train for a long time. You have to see that the railway train
19:44on, you have to use a province from 1.3 square lane and the railway train
19:47on the faulty lane, it is a temporary city, around the faulty lane, we have to
19:50After 5-3 hours, this point is over-over-over-over-over-over-over-over-over.
20:20So it is a teamwork. It's not just one organization or institute or the system to do that.
20:26This is a bridge, a railway bridge. By attacking this bridge, not only did the Israelis try to cut off
20:37the breeze from Tehran,
20:39the road below also is an arterial road. They cut that off also for quite a few days,
20:44till the mayor and his workers and his team really got the rabble out.
20:50A strong message of resilience, reconstruction, but also vulnerability.
20:56Over here, reporting from Charabagh at a very arterial Taburiz Tehran railway bridge.
21:04This is Geeta Mohan with camera person Satya Rautre reporting for India Today.
21:09Hello. We are in Tehran. We've been trying to get you all the voices of people who matter
21:15and who know exactly where Iran stands today. One such person is a renowned former IRGC commander.
21:24He's been speaking about the situation on the ground on a continuous basis.
21:29Hossein Kanani Moghaddam. Thank you so much, sir, for joining me here.
21:32President Trump is very clear that Iran cannot have nuclear weapons or nuclear ambitions.
21:40And Iran is now saying it's not going to part with its enriched uranium.
21:45In such a scenario, how do you see Iran and U.S. actually signing a deal?
21:52I think this is one part of the propaganda of the Trump against Iran, because they know very well
21:59the supreme leader, last supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, and now the new supreme leader.
22:06Both of them, they have an order and fatwa according to the Islam religion.
22:12We never used and made and constructed nuclear bomb. This is clear. Everybody knows.
22:24And we are under control of the MPT protocol and they visit Iran. But I think at this time,
22:36in Israel, they have a nuclear bomb, more than 400 head, we estimated that.
22:45You're saying Israel has nuclear warheads?
22:49Yes.
22:49And Iran is not being allowed to have even one?
22:52Yes. This is the paradox and this is the double standard for the control of the activities
23:01of the nuclear weapon in the world. And I think if they want to control the first step,
23:11they must control the Israel. But Iran under control of the MPT and supervision of that.
23:18And there is no any activities, military activities. But if we want to make a bomb,
23:26the United States cannot stop me. They cannot control Iran. But we don't like at this time,
23:37according to the order of the supreme leader, to use of that. But we try to use the umbrella,
23:44atomic umbrella, because we have to defense Iran against any threat of the nuclear power,
23:51nuclear bomb. We try to, company with China and Russia for, made the umbrella.
24:10The nuclear umbrella, to be under the nuclear or the atomic umbrella.
24:13Yeah.
24:14Because we have to defense self for the people and the people asking Iran. And another one,
24:23the activities of the for enrichment, the uranium, you know, we have to use the uranium for the
24:31agriculture, for the medicine, for the sweet water and the power station and many things. We need it.
24:40And the United States cannot stop this activities. We, this is a red line for the Iran.
24:48Iran continue for civil purposes, peace purposes.
24:52For enrichment of this, for the peace activities.
24:57Thank you very much.
24:58Thank you so much for joining us.
24:59Thank you so much for you.
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