Indian med students hail Iranian bus driver’s role in escape via Armenia

Dehradun: More than 150 Indians, including MBBS students, returned home from war-hit Iran through the Armenian land border, but for many of them the most enduring memory of the journey remains the conduct of ordinary Iranians who, they said, helped them leave safely in the middle of bombardment. Among them was an Iranian bus driver who ferried students to the Armenia border and, according to those on board, kept reassuring them through an eight-hour journey that he would get them out safely.One of the 104 Indians who landed in Delhi on March 16, Labeeb Qadri, 24, a fifth-year MBBS student from Srinagar studying at Urmia University of Medical Sciences in Iran's West Azerbaijan province, told TOI that the driver's words had stayed with him even after he returned home. "We just can't thank the Iranian bus driver enough for what he did for us in that situation. His words still echo in my ears: ‘It is my duty to ensure you all reach the border safely.' That gave us much-needed reassurance at a time when we were deeply worried," he said.Qadri said that as bombings intensified on March 4, students staying in the university hostel grew increasingly fearful and eventually took shelter in the basement of the building, where they remained till March 12. It was then, he said, that Indian embassy officials facilitated their evacuation by bus to the Armenian border. The group travelled around 300 km from the university to the Armenian border checkpoint at Nordooz in about eight hours."During that whole journey, our Iranian driver kept reassuring us of our safety. He was very helpful and held his nerves in the war," Qadri said. He added that university officials also stood by the students through the crisis, regularly checking on them and arranging food while they remained confined indoors. "They took care of us like their own family. We will never forget that gesture," he said.Though the students reached the border without incident, the journey itself remained tense. Another student, who did not want to be named and cited debriefing by Indian authorities after the return, described the route out of the city as one of silence and fear. "While crossing the city, we could see dark smoke rising from the ground after the bombings. We kept wondering how a beautiful city had changed in a matter of hours. On the near-empty road towards the border, many of us kept looking out of the bus windows for incoming missiles or jets. There was an eerie silence inside, except for the engine, but each one of us was carrying uncertainty and prayers," he said.He said the mood changed only after the bus finally reached the Armenian border. "We just can't explain the emotions when we finally got there. We thanked the driver again and again for bringing us through safely," he said.The journey home, however, was still far from over. Qadri said that after crossing into Armenia, the students undertook another 11-hour bus ride to Yerevan before boarding a flight to Dubai. From there, they were to take a connecting flight to Delhi, but the trip was delayed further. "After reaching Dubai, we faced a 20-hour delay because the airport there was hit by a drone. We finally breathed in relief when we landed in Delhi after a journey of around 72 hours on the night of March 16, and then reached home in Kashmir by road. We will never forget this journey in our life," he said.Despite the ordeal, Qadri said he intended to return to Iran once the war ended. After spending five years there, he said, the country no longer felt foreign to him. "It is like my second home. Once the war ends, I will definitely return to Urmia to serve the people at the hospital there. It is the least we can do," he said.