SRINAGAR The hope of returning home is fading among hundreds of Kashmiri students who have completed quarantine period in Jaisalmer city of Rajasthan, India, after their return from Iran last month. Over 100 Kashmiri students, most of them females, have appealed the authorities to help them to return to Kashmir. “With every passing day, we are losing hope,” a fourth year female student at Tehran University of Medical Sciences (TUMS), told Kashmir Observer. “We don’t know if we could ever go back to our homes. We have been left in lurch, abandoned,” she added. Hailing from Budgam district of central Kashmir, she was one among the hundreds of Kashmiri students evacuated from novel coronavirushit Iran on March 14, and taken to Army Wellness Centre, Jaisalmer, for quarantine. A week after completing mandatory quarantine process, she and her friends continue to remain ‘unattended, uninformed’ at the centre. All the evacuated students, she said, went to undergo quarantine process for their safety and wellbeing of others. “Now, we have been left in dark, unattended and uninformed. We have no idea what’s going on here as the authorities are not being honest with us,” she said. “The temperature is rising every passing day. We aren’t used to stay in 35 Degree Celsius. It is really hard for those students who come from hilly areas,” said another student. He said that anxious calls from the parents were adding to the worries of the already perturbed students. He said if the government can airlift sanitizers and masks to Kashmir, why is it difficult to ferry students in the same aircraft to Valley. “We are ready to pay for the tickets if government airlifts us. If the government wishes, we can be home in hours,” he added. He said some Indian pilgrims, who were also airlifted from Iran, were kept in a different block on the same camp.—KMS
