Wait continues for Kol professor now stuck in Mashhad
Kolkata: Kolkata's Geography professor Falguni Dey, who has been stuck in Iran amid no signs of de-escalation in the hostilities, is now waiting at Mashhad, tense and desperate to leave the war-wrecked country.
On Monday morning, Dey went to the hotel where help desks were opened by the Indian Embassy.
"There was a long queue of those who wanted to board the flights heading to India. Most of them were from Kashmir. Some of them tried to push their way through the priority list of the passengers. But the Indian Embassy officials, working round the clock, handled them diplomatically. I can understand that people have started getting restless to get back home now," Dey said.
Dey was scheduled to board a flight back home on June 15, but he got stranded after Israel launched a missile attack on Iran on June 14. Since then, Dey had been on the run to escape the ravages of missiles and drones from Israel. In the past 10 days, he travelled 2,500 km across Iran. He was denied permission to cross the border through Azerbaijan and Armenia.
"I heard that a lot of people, who were stranded in different parts of Iran, have started to reach Mashhad.
There are five or six hotels where the Indian Embassy has made arrangements for them. But I am feeling tired now. I am going to run out of the regular medicines that I take," he said over the phone.
On Sunday night, Barrackpore resident Dipak Adhikary and his wife, Soma Adhikary, who were stuck in a village near Shiraz in the Fars province, reached Mashhad. "I spoke to them on Monday morning and they are safe now," said Adhikari's friend Naresh Senapati. A group of 11 pilgrims from three families in Dhalipara under Chaurashi gram panchayat in Deganga also reached Mashhad from Qom on Sunday night. The group left for Iraq and Iran on May 30.
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