Last Indian student in Iran stays back, says can’t leave country ‘when it is in distress’

Dehradun: Even after nearly all Indian medical students returned from Iran following the outbreak of war, one 22-year-old MBBS student from Kashmir chose to stay back, saying he could not leave the country “when it is in distress”.

Now living alone in a nine-storey hostel in Ahvaz after the last remaining Indian students left, Asif Gulzar said he was safe and had made the decision with his family’s support.Hailing from Baramulla in J&K, Gulzar, a third-semester MBBS student at Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences in Ahvaz city in Khuzestan province, told TOI, “I am here by choice and I am safe. I realised I cannot leave Iran when it is in distress and under attack.

My family supports my decision.”Gulzar is likely the last among around 2,000 Indian medical students who were in Iran and returned to India in phases after the war started on Feb 28. He said he was now living by himself in the university’s nine-storey hostel after the remaining around 145 students there also left, but added that life around him remained stable and essential supplies were available despite the conflict.

He also said internet connectivity in Iran was very poor and he was using a paid virtual private network, or VPN, borrowed from a local Iranian friend so he could remain in touch with his family. Explaining why he stayed back after the others left, he said he felt it would be unfair to leave when Iran, which he described as his second home, was going through a difficult time.“When innocent people are suffering, I cannot choose the easy option and leave only for my own comfort,” Asif Gulzar said, giving the moral reasoning behind his decision.

He added that staying silent in the face of such suffering would have remained with him for life.Fond of reading revolutionaries such as Bhagat Singh, Gulzar said he had drawn from the idea that silence in the face of oppression amounted to complicity. With classes suspended for now, he said he had been spending time reading the works of thinkers, philosophers and revolutionaries, while also writing poetry to capture the atmosphere around him.Nasir Khuehami, national convenor of the Jammu & Kashmir Students Association, which helped facilitate the return of Indian students, including around 1,200 from Kashmir, told TOI that almost all of them had returned. “If someone has chosen not to return for personal reasons, there is little we can do in such a case. We did our best to ensure the return of every student with the help of Indian authorities,” Nasir Khuehami said.