Four Indian men who were ‘duped’ into joining the Russian Army and fight the war in Ukraine received a rousing homecoming welcome as they finally flew back to India. These men were the ones who made a heart-wrenching video urging the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government to rescue them from Russia.
Earlier this year, a group of men claimed that they were fraudulently drafted into the Russian Army under the pretext of “lucrative job offers”.
The External Affairs Minister had been making efforts to repatriate the Indian citizens but the final push to those efforts came after Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Russia when he raked up the issue with President Vladimir Putin. Following their discussion, Moscow agreed to send back all the Indians who had been hired by the Russian army to fight on the battlefield against Ukraine.
‘Treated like slaves’
The four men who returned to India on Friday said that at least 60 others fell prey to the scam while many of them are still in Russia. They said that the youths were “shipped out of India” last year in December with the promise of jobs as helpers or security personnel.
Mohammad Sufiyan, from Telangana, told Times of India, “We were treated like slaves. We were woken up at 6 am every day and made to work 15 hours straight – with no rest or sleep. The conditions were inhuman. We were given meagre ration. Our hands were blistered, our backs ached and our spirits were broken.”
He added that if they tried to show any signs of exhaustion, they were fired upon to force them back to work.
Among the tasks that they were asked to do included digging trenches, firing AK-12 and AK-74, hand grenades and other explosives.
The men were completely disconnected from the world as their phones were confiscated by the army. Sufiyan said that he and his companions never knew their exact whereabouts and their only solace was a hope that they would get home soon.
“Every day we woke up not knowing if it would be our last. The sound of gunfire and explosions became a constant backdrop to our lives, and we lived in perpetual fear,” said another man Syed Ilias Hussaini from Karnataka.
‘Friend was blown to death’
Sufiyan recalled that they had to witness other soldiers “dropping dead” regularly.
He said, “Hamil, a very good friend of mine from Gujarat, was blown to death in a drone attack. He was part of a team of 24 soldiers, including one Indian and one Nepali. It shook me up.”
The death of a close friend was the Indian men following which they told their families about the situation and requested EAM Jaishankar to repatriate them from the warzone.
Link to article –
