Stuck in bunker, heckled by cops at Ukr border, student narrates ordeal

Kolkata: Noor Hasan, a third-year medical student who was stuck in Ukraine, finally returned to his native place in Malda on Friday morning. He narrated the ordeal he had to go through before crossing over to Romania.

Noor alleged that Ukrainian police personnel misbehaved with him and many other Indian students who were waiting at the Ukraine-Romania border to enter Romania. Police fired in the open, aiming at students who were trying to cross the border.

"We had a hint about the impending war from the Twitter handle of the Ukrainian President. We felt that the war might break out on March 15 which didn't happen," Noor said adding: "On March 24, when I was sleeping, a classmate woke me up and said that there was a siren and war was about to begin. We immediately slipped into a bunker. We had to go out to collect food one day and we were back at the bunker."

Around 400 medical students stayed in the bunker for 3-4 days. They managed to avail a bus and reached an area close to the Romanian border. After getting down from the bus they had to walk a long way before reaching the border. When Noor, along with many others reached the border, they found a queue of around 2,000 students trying to enter Romania. "We waited at the border from morning until evening. There were no representatives from the Indian Embassy," added Noor.

In another incident, family members of one Saddam Hossain are spending sleepless nights. They are hopeful that Saddam will be able to avail a flight in the next 2-3 days. "We have been able to speak to him and his documents have been verified already and he will be allotted a seat in an India-bound flight. Saddam had to stay in a bunker for few days. He has taken shelter at a religious place near the Polish border," Saddam's father said. He is a

fourth-year medical student from Kharkiv National Medical University.

Over 2,000 Indian students have already returned home and the process is on to bring back all the others who are still stuck there.

Family members of Bitasta Gupta, a fifth year medical student had alleged that there was no one from the Indian Embassy and the Centre-appointed designated officers in Romania allegedly did not respond to their SoS calls.

Bitasta, who spent over 48 hours in the open air amidst snowfall on the Ukraine side of Romania-Ukraine border just to cross over to the other country, has already returned home.

"I sent WhatsApp messages to 2-3 Central-government designated officers on Sunday night saying that my daughter is without food, water for two days. They did not bother to respond to my messages though all of them were online and had read the texts," Debasish Gupta, Bitasta's father said earlier this week.