23-06-2025
- Politics
- New Indian Express
‘We thought it was the last night of our lives': Students evacuated from Iran
BENGALURU: Darkness fell over Iran on a cold Friday evening, and this time, it was one of the darkest nights the city has faced.
'It was 3:30 in the evening on June 13 — I will never forget that date or time. Just one kilometer from our dormitory, missiles fell. There was a boom, like thunder.
At first, we didn't know what had happened. When we realized it was a missile strike, we were numb and shaken,' recalls Syed Mohsin Raza from Alipur, a second-semester MBBS student at Shahid Beheshti University who was staying in District 3, where the bombing initially began.
Syed was among the batch of students evacuated from Iran and who landed on Sunday.
Shockwaves shattered the windows of Tehran's buildings and the dormitory walls shook. 'We first thought it was just an army vehicle or something,' he said. 'But then the windows broke, the opposite building shook… we saw it with our own eyes. We saw the missile and air defence system, and understood it was serious.'
The Indian Embassy in Tehran was close by, but they couldn't go. 'We contacted the embassy. We called them and asked for help as the situation was getting worse,' Syed said.
Syeda Faize Zainab, who lived in District 6 of Tehran, remembers the chaos in her dormitory, running and hiding in the basement with the hope of saving her life. 'There was bombardment and explosions all around, and we had to hide in the basements. We thought we would die, that it was the last night of our lives,' says Syeda.
