"Saving Ourselves Our Priority": Indian Students Being Evacuated In Tehran

As the conflict between Israel and Iran intensifies, people in Tehran have been warned of a major Israeli retaliation after Iran's ballistic missiles caused significant damage in Tel Aviv and explosions were heard over Jerusalem. People in Iran's capital are abandoning their homes and driving out of the city before missiles from Israel aim to rain down on major Iranian cities.

Among those leaving Tehran are students from India, mostly from Jammu and Kashmir, followed by Karnataka and several other states. There are three universities in Tehran where hundreds of Indian students are studying. These are Shahid Beheshti University, University of Tehran, and Iran University of Medical Sciences.

These students are being evacuated on buses and are being taken from Iran to the city of Qom, 148 km away. Speaking exclusively to NDTV, students from the Shahid Beheshti University said there are traffic snarls on highways leading out of Tehran.

"We are about 40 students per bus, all Indians, being taken out of Tehran. We are heading to the nearest town on the outskirts," said Sheikh Azhan, a student representative on one of the buses. He added that "There is too much of traffic on the roads as lots of people are leaving the city. We are stuck in traffic."

Another student representative, Zakir Sheikh, said "We have been in touch with the Indian Embassy officials. For now, we have just been informed about the change of our location - that we are being taken out of Tehran. There has been no confirmation about our return to India just yet."

As per data available to NDTV, a majority of the Indian students in Iran are women. Zakir Sheikh confirms that "A majority of the students on my bus are women. In our batch, most of the students are from Jammu and Kashmir, but there were students from Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh too."

Sheikh Azhan said that "On my bus, there are some students from Maharashtra and Bengaluru too. We are more than 450 students from Shahid Beheshti University alone. There are three universities from where we all are being evacuated. On my bus there are a few students from another university as well. Since the buses assigned to their university got full, they were accommodated here."

"The Indian Embassy has informed us that students from all three universities are being taken out to cities around Tehran. We will stay there for the next few days, while the government will assess what the next course of action will be - whether we will return to India or go back to Tehran, if it is safe for our return, shall be communicated to us later," he added.

Mr Azhan said that "We all left our university in a hurry, so we couldn't really eat anything much. The situation is pretty chaotic on the streets, so we don't really know when we may get a chance to have some refreshments."

The women students on the bus did not wish to speak at the moment. "They are tired and scared. We all are scared and anxious about what all is happening. Things here are not safe. Our priority is to save our life. We all want to return home safely," Sheikh Azhan said, adding that "We are hearing that some students from the University of Tehran were injured, however, the injuries were minor and they all have joined their friends and are being evacuated. Students from our university are safe so far, by the grace of God."

"We couldn't sleep for the last few nights, as we could hear explosions over and around us. We managed to sleep in the day, since the attacks would die down after daybreak. Our university has been very cooperative and helpful so far. We are very thankful and grateful to our university vice-chancellor," Mr Azhan added.

The students said that the Indian Embassy has made evacuation plans based on where the universities are located. Those located to the north of the city are being evacuated to a different location and those to the west and south of the city are being taken elsewhere.