‘Please rescue us’: Indians stuck in coronavirus-hit Iran plead in video message
“None moving out of home unless absolutely necessary,” says Kolkata youth stuck near Tehran along with 10 other Indian engineers .
A group of 11 Indians has kept themselves confined at an apartment in the town of Parand, about 65 kilometre southwest of Tehran in Iran, as the scare of novel coronavirus has virtually kept the whole town indoors.
Two of the eleven members, all of them engineers, hail from West Bengal.
In a video message, Sayantan Banerjee - an electrical engineer who hails from Kolkata - spoke of the state of panic they are living in Iran. The video was shared with his friends.
“Twenty-two people are here in this apartment. We work in the same organisation. Eleven of us are Indians. We are living in a scary situation and have confined ourselves in this apartment. We cannot go out, as there is a massive outbreak of coronavirus. Many people died in the city of Qum, about 130 kilometres from where we live,” he said in the video.
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“Right now, all outbound flights stand cancelled. We have no idea what will happen to us in the coming days. I earnestly request the government of India to take us out of this critical situation at the earliest,” he said.
Others living in the same apartment are from countries like Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Nepal.
Banerjee later told a Bengali TV channel over a video call that too few people in Parand are moving out of their homes. “We have our food stocked in the apartment for a few days. It’s very risky to venture out,” he said.
Another Indian confined in that apartment is Bikash Das, a mechanical engineer who hails from Durgapur in West Bengal.
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His father Bishnupada Das said that their son contacted over video call and was wearing a mask even while talking to them from inside the room.
“He said that their office has remained closed over the past few days as no one is willing to move out of the home. Most of the shops and markets are closed. He said on Tuesday that only five days’ food is in their stock and that they have already started rationing the food to save for the unpredictable situation,” Bishnupada Das said.
“We have informed the district administration and requested them to take up the matter with the government of West Bengal and the government of India,” said local municipal corporator Ramaprasad Haldar, who belongs to the ruling Trinamool Congress party.
