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‘Stay indoors’: India’s alert for citizens in Iran as Trump warns of strikes
An urgent advisory from the Indian embassy in Tehran urged Indian nationals to remain indoors and to coordinate any movement on highways with the mission.
India on Tuesday urged its citizens in Iran to remain wherever they are for the next 48 hours and to avoid all power and military installations hours after US President Donald Trump warned that the Iranian “civilization will die tonight”, further escalating the crisis in West Asia..
An urgent advisory from the Indian embassy in Tehran urged Indian nationals to remain indoors and to coordinate any movement on highways with the mission.
There were about 9,000 Indian nationals, most of them students, in Iran when military strikes by Israel and the US triggered the conflict in the region on February 28. Aseem Mahajan, additional secretary (Gulf) in the external affairs ministry, told a media briefing on Tuesday that 1,862 Indians, including 935 students and 472 fishermen, had so far returned from Iran via Armenia and Azerbaijan.
The advisory directed Indian nationals still in Iran to “stay where they are for the next 48 hours, avoiding all electric, military installations and upper floors of multi-storey buildings, remaining indoors, and coordinating any highway movement strictly with the embassy”.
The US has repeatedly threatened in recent days to target civilian infrastructure such as bridges and power plants in Iran.
Indian nationals sheltering in “embassy-hired hotels should stay put indoors while maintaining regular contact with on-site embassy teams”, the advisory said. The Indian nationals were also urged to monitor official updates on the situation.
Scores of Indian students shifted from cities such as Tehran and Isfahan to safer locations are currently sheltering in hotels hired by the embassy.
Indian nationals have had to leave Iran via land border crossings with Armenia or Azerbaijan because of the closure of Iranian airspace since the start of the conflict.
Following another deadline imposed by the US for the opening of the Strait of Hormuz and for reaching a deal to end the hostilities, Trump made another maximalist threat on social media: “A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will.”
At the same time, Trump held out hope for a deal, saying “something revolutionary wonderful can happen” in view of what he contended was a “Complete and Total Regime Change” in Iran.
Trump’s latest deadline is set to end at 8 pm Eastern Time (5.30 am Indian time on Wednesday).
