Azad Yusuf Kumar, son of Mohammed Yusuf Kumar from Poshwan Awantipora in the Pulwama district of Kashmir, was deceived by a Dubai-based consultant, Faisal Khan, who promised job opportunities in cooking and cleaning through a YouTube channel named “Baba Vlogs.” Azad traveled from Mumbai to Sharjah, and then to Moscow. Upon arrival in Russia, he and his companions were coerced into signing agreements written in Russian. They were handed over to the Russian Army, trained for 15 days, and deployed to the Ukraine border, where Azad sustained injuries and is currently stranded, the statement said.
Zahoor Ahmad Sheikh, a resident of Hajinar Tangdar area of Kupwara, also went missing in Russia. Zahoor traveled to Russia in December 2023 with his companions, Arbaab from Uttar Pradesh and Asfaan from Hyderabad. His sudden disappearance has caused deep distress among his family and loved ones, it added.
The association also draws attention to six Indians stuck in the Russia-Ukraine warzone from the same village in Haryana. Every house in the village has someone serving in the army. Families have narrated how life has been made miserable for all these stranded Indians, including two Kashmiris. They have come under the clutches of death. Families told us that MEA officials did not know about the many sorrows that have come to them, how their dear ones have been caught up in distress, and how their lives are in peril.
Families of these recruits have sought help in New Delhi but have been unable to meet any top government authority. They express desperation, noting that their loved ones have been trapped in the Russian army for four months, living under miserable conditions. All these families want is to bring their kids back. They have been living like prisoners for the past four months, with no resolution in sight, the association added.
The situation has become even more urgent as two Indians and two Nepali nationals have been killed on the warfront. Hemil Ashwinbhai Mangukiya, a 23-year-old youth from Surat in Gujarat, was killed in a Ukrainian airstrike in the Donetsk region on February 21. Families have been informed of two Nepali nationals killed in the same area, adding to the anxiety of the thirty Indian families whose kin are stranded.
Khuehami said that families have shared their distressing experiences, detailing how their loved ones have been caught in perilous conditions. The MEA officials didn’t know about the many sorrows that have come to their loved ones and family members, how their dear ones have been caught up in distress.
The J&K Students Association, through its letter, urged the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, for personal intervention and to raise this critical issue with the Minister of External Affairs in the House. The association said that it is the government’s responsibility to get these citizens out of danger, ensuring their safe repatriation and preventing such incidents in the future, he emphasized.
He added that the families of these victims are wailing in distress from dawn to dusk, hoping for the safe return of their loved ones. Is India so weak that the Russians are not paying heed to our pleas even after four months? These citizens have been left high and dry, and it is imperative that their plight be brought to the attention of the highest authorities for immediate action.
The association hopes for a positive and swift response from Leader of Opposition, urging that the plight of these citizens be addressed at the highest levels to ensure their safe return. It hoped that Rahul Gandhi will represent the case strongly in the House so that families back at home will feel a sigh of relief and be able to meet their loved ones again.
