Parents of children stuck in Iran meet Jaishankar in Kashmir

Parents of children stuck in Iran met External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar at the Kashmir International Conference Centre here on Monday.

In the about an hour long meeting, the parents made a joint request to the Minister to bring back their children to India at the earliest.

Since the outbreak of coronavirus, the parents are worried about the safety of their children as Iran has recorded the highest number of deaths due to coronavirus after China and Italy.

Syed Mehdi Hussain Rizwi, whose daughter Massoma Rizwi is doing MBBS in Iran, told IANS: "Her college has closed for last 15 days, we talk every day over the phone, the only thing she asks when she can return to Kashmir."

"The Minister told us that a team from India has been sent to Iran, but we are told it is there for the pilgrims and not for students," Rizwi said.

Another parent Bashir Ahmad is worried about his son, Faizan, doing MBBS from Shiraz University in Iran.

He says the low speed Internet in Kashmir is making it difficult for him to freely interact with his son.

But in whatever interactions he has had so far, his son has been telling him that the situation is becoming unbearable and he wants to be home at the earliest.

"My son is very worried, we don't know how to deal with the situation, he is not able to sleep in Iran and here in Kashmir his parents are not able to sleep, we want him back soonest," Ahmad said.

"There was no clear assurance, we were told that the government is working on a plan to bring back our children, but I think that it is merely a dilly dallying tactic," Ahmad said. "We want our children to be brought back to Kashmir so they are spared their mental agony; we are frustrated as the disease is spreading fast."

The parents have made repeated requests to the government to bring their children back to Kashmir from Iran. Last week they staged a protest in Srinagar urging the government to evacuate their children stuck in Iran after the outbreak of coronavirus.IANS