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Surjewala seeks safe return of eight Haryana youth stuck in Ukraine
Six youths– Baldev, Rajender, Mohit, Manjeet, Sahil and Ravi are from Kaithal, meanwhile, another two, namely Harsh and Mandeep are from Karnal and Fatehabad respectively
Congress’ general secretary and Rajya Sabha MP Randeep Singh Surjewala has written to foreign minister S Jaishankar seeking the safe return of eight youths from Haryana stuck in war-torn Ukraine.
Six youths– Baldev, Rajender, Mohit, Manjeet, Sahil and Ravi are from Kaithal, meanwhile, another two, namely Harsh and Mandeep are from Karnal and Fatehabad respectively.
In his letter to the minister, the lawmaker claimed that due to unemployment and the absence of work opportunities, when they were made to pay ₹8 to 10 lakh each for a transportation job in Russia, they decided to go.
“One Ankit, who received the money from the boys and is already settled in Russia, took them to Moscow on a tourist visa and they were forcibly sent to the war front,” he said.
Surjewala further said Sahil also received grenade injuries.
“On April 6, they communicated that their group had been broken up and they had been individually taken to different locations forcibly. All this is being done under coercion. Their videos appealing to govt of India to bring them back safely have flooded the Twitter space…,” he added.
He asked Jaishankar to take up the matter with the Russian counterpart and assign the embassy to provide all the assistance.
The youth from Karnal, Harsh, has released three videos with his fellows from Fatehabad and Punjab in the past weeks, detailing how they were scammed and left to die in the war.
