The sky was glowing with streaks of light and trails of smoke. The roar of fighter jets echoed across the city as sirens wailed in the distance. From her fifth-floor dormitory in Tehran, the thunderclap of a nearby explosion shook the window panes, accompanied by a repetitive cracking sound — gunfire, perhaps — or another blast.
This is how a 22-year-old MBBS student from Hyderabad, studying at the Tehran University of Medical Sciences, described the night of June 13. “We heard a loud thunder-like sound around 3:20 am,” she said. “Then we saw black smoke. Everyone started running. I heard a fighter jet. Then we heard firing. It felt like the war was literally over our heads.”
“The war wasn’t on television. It was outside my window,” she said.
The student, who has since been moved to Qom — about 200 kilometres from Tehran — for safety, said their dormitory experienced a blackout and students were unable to eat or sleep for two days. “Our dean came on Friday and said the dorm is the safest place. But the situation got worse. They started moving students to bunkers and basements back in Tehran across universities. We’re safe for now, but terrified.”
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As the Israel-Iran conflict entered its fourth day Monday, Indian students — many from Jammu and Kashmir — found themselves caught in the crossfire of a war between two countries they have no stake in. “We are just here to study,” the 22-year-old said. “And now we are a part of a war between two countries we don’t even belong to.”
On Monday, In a communication by the Indian Embassy to Arak University of Medical Sciences in Markazi Province, Arak said ” You are requested to kindly facilitate the evacuation of Indian nationals/Indian origin students, studying in your university….We have made arrangements for their evacuation. They may be permitted to leave the University, as being facilitated by the Embassy of India, Tehran. The Embassy of India, Tehran takes this responsibility for this planned movement and security of Indian students.”
As per the estimated data of Indian students studying abroad, as per the Ministry of External Affairs, in 2022 about 2,050 students were enrolled as students and most of them for medical studies at institutions like the Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Shahid Beheshti University and Islamic Azad University.
Despite the efforts towards evacuation the fear still remains.
Another 22-year-old second-year MBBS student from Kashmir, also at the Tehran University of Medical Sciences, said her dormitory’s windows shattered during one of the attacks. “I don’t even know exactly what’s happening,” she said. “But we’ve been awake for four nights now. Today, they bombed a place near our university. It was really bad.”
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A student at Shahid Beheshti University, also from Kashmir, said they spent Saturday in the underground section of their residence. “The noise did not stop at all. The defence activity is all around us. It’s like living in a war movie, but we’re in it. We panicked for a day because we heard that Iran’s defence system was down. We are unable to make any movement,” she said.
“Our universities are providing us with food and other support, but we want our government to initiate evacuation. We are looking at students from other countries being evacuated and we want to request the Government of India to do the same,” said another second-year student of Tehran University of Medical Sciences from Kashmir.
“I haven’t been able to keep in touch with my family regularly as the internet connectivity is very poor here. My family is very worried about me. My mother has not stopped crying for two days now,” she added.
The Jammu and Kashmir Students Association (JKSA) said two students from Kashmir were injured in a strike near the Hujjat Dost dormitory for international students at the Tehran University of Medical Sciences on Sunday evening. Both are stable and were shifted to Ramsar, it said.
In a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday, the JKSA appealed for “urgent intervention and evacuation” of Indian students from Iran, calling it a “humanitarian emergency.”
“These students had travelled to Iran to pursue professional education, particularly MBBS, due to the country’s economically viable academic infrastructure… Now, they find themselves in the middle of an active military zone, fearful for their lives,” the JKSA said in its letter.
JKSA’s national convenor Nasir Khuehami alleged that while students have reached out repeatedly to the Indian Embassy in Tehran seeking evacuation, they have received no concrete assurance.
In a statement on Monday, the Ministry of External Affairs said the Indian Embassy in Tehran was “continuously monitoring the security situation and engaging Indian students in Iran to ensure their safety”. “In some cases, students are being relocated with the Embassy’s facilitation to safer places within Iran. Other feasible options are also under examination. Further updates will follow. Separately, the Embassy is in touch with community leaders regarding welfare and safety,” it said.
According to some students, some universities have begun relocating students to smaller cities like Qom and Ramsar, but many remain in high-risk areas. “We only got moved after the bombing came very close and some students got hurt… Until then, we were told to stay put in the dormitories or asked to approach the Indian Embassy,” said a Tehran University of Medical Sciences student who is now in Qom.
