Kin, friends worry about Bengal residents stuck in Iran
Times of India | 23 June 2025
123456 Kolkata: A number of residents from Bengal, who were stuck in Iran, started reaching Mashhad after the Indian embassy began evacuating Indians from there. Over the past few days, the Indian embassy officials in Tehran tried to reach every individual stuck in Iran and asked them to move towards Mashhad following the govt's decision to evacuate Indians from there.Barrackpore resident Dipak Adhikary and his wife Soma were stuck in a village near Shiraz in the Fars province, located in the south-central part of Iran. In the past few days, the couple went incommunicado as internet services were largely affected in Iran. On Sunday, they started for Mashhad. "Dipak has been my colleague for long and has been working in the Middle East in the last four-five years. He and his wife were stranded in Iran over the past few days with zero communication with us. I could speak to them only on Sunday morning, and they started moving towards Mashhad. They should reach the city by Sunday evening," said Naresh Senapati."We have been trying to get them connected with the Indian embassy in Tehran and bring them back to India before the situation in the country goes out of control. Our fears increased further after the US launched attacks on a number of areas in Iran," said Senapati.Meanwhile, 11 tourists from Dhalipara in Chourashia village of Deganga in North 24 Parganas, who travelled to Iran on May 30 to visit various religious sites, have reached Mashhad. Their families back home had been getting unnerved with each passing day. On Sunday, Hossain Mehdi, son of Syed Ali Gayen, one of the stranded tourists, said, "I managed to speak to my father for a very brief while. On Friday, around 160 people were transported from Qom city to Mashhad in four buses. Initially, they were told that a flight from Mashhad airport was scheduled to depart at 2 pm on Monday. But so far, their names have not appeared on the final passenger list."Three residents of Shantipur, Nadia, got stranded in Iran after Israel launched attacks on the country. Amirul Sheikh, Ashraful Sheikh, and Saber Ali Sheikh, residents of Gopalpur Mel's Street area in Shantipur, Nadia, went to Iran to work in a jewellery store there. As the internet network has been hit hard in Iran, they are unable to contact family members.