Harassed at Ukraine border despite Union Ministers on job: Pupils

Avneet Kaur

Jalandhar, March 3

Even though the Union Ministers have reached the Ukraine border to coordinate the evacuation process of the Indians still stuck in the war-torn country, the students alleged they continue to face harassment and discrimination at the hands of the Polish border guards.

They alleged a free passage was being given to Ukrainian people and students from other countries, however, the Indians were being mistreated and asked to move out of queues.

Sumit Puri (23), a fourth-year medical student of the Kharkiv National Medical University, who hails from Nawanshahr, said he along with a group of 15 friends had been stranded at the Ukraine-Poland border for 18 hours. He said his friends — four from Punjab, three Haryana, three Kerala and five Uttar Pradesh — left Kharkiv on Tuesday after a lot of struggle.

He said they boarded a train for Lviv from Kharkiv as per the government instructions to reach the Poland border, but now they were stuck there in -3°C as the officials were not letting them cross over.

“We just don’t know what’s happening. The Indian Embassy advisory asked us to arrive at the border as all arrangements are in place to evacuate us, but on ground the situation is completely different. There is not a single official of the Indian Government present at the border to assist us. We have been making desperate calls to seek help, but all in vain,” Sumit said, adding that there were hundreds of more Indian students stranded here and a majority of them had come from Kharkiv.

Talking to The Tribune over a WhatsApp call, Vikas of Haryana, who was with Sumit, alleged an Indian officer on duty at the Poland border received his call last night, but he asked him to manage things on his own as he couldn’t help him and later disconnected the phone.

Another stranded student, Abhay Chahal of Gurdaspur, said they desperately want the Indian Government to intervene as they were facing discrimination at the Poland border. “Prime Minister Narendra Modi needs to talk with the Polish government,” he added.

Meanwhile, Vijay Khanna, a government official deployed at the Poland border, didn’t take repeated calls or replied to the message.