NEW DELHI: Twenty-four-year-old Tahir says he usually books a return ticket whenever he travels home to Kupwara in Jammu & Kashmir from Iran, where he moved in 2022 to pursue an MBBS degree. This time, however, he bought only a one-way ticket to Delhi.
Tahir was among the first group of nearly 70 Indian students — most of them from Kashmir — who landed at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport on Sunday after leaving Iran. At the start of the conflict, around 1,200 Kashmiri students, many studying medicine, were in the country.
Scenes of relief and emotion unfolded outside the international arrivals gate at Terminal 3. Naina, a 22-year-old final-year medical student from Anantnag, said the past month had been filled with anxiety as students waited for communication from their universities and the Indian government.
“I could feel the tremors when bombs hit police stations near my hostel,” she said. “The whole room was shaking.”
Students said they paid for their own flights, while the Centre helped facilitate documentation and travel clearances.
Iran has announced a 40-day mourning period following the death of its supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and universities have suspended classes for now. Indian students have been told they may have to return once academic activities resume to complete their examinations.
“We were in the middle of our clinical training,” said 23-year-old medical student Sohail Amin. “But when the conflict began, everything came to a halt. In such situations, schools and hospitals are often among the first to shut down because they can become targets.”
Students said they had received a general advisory about exams but remained uncertain about the immediate plan and how their degrees might be affected.
Some classmates who could not afford flights home have been relocated to the city of Qom, where conditions are relatively calmer than in Tehran. Tahir said his usual round-trip ticket costs about ₹25,000, but the emergency journey home cost nearly ₹55,000 for a one-way flight.
For Mohammad Asim, Tahir’s cousin in Delhi who came to receive him, the past few weeks were deeply stressful. “Everything was uncertain. Our loved ones were stuck there and all we could do was wait for updates,” he said.
Frequent internet disruptions in Iran also made it difficult for students to stay in touch with their families. One final-year student said many struggled with how much to reveal about the situation. “We wanted to be honest, but we didn’t want to worry them,” the student said.
Adviyah, a 25-year-old student from Budgam, said they spent nearly three weeks dealing with uncertainty while trying to reassure their families back home.
The group of students was first moved from Iran to Armenia about four days ago, then flown to Dubai before finally reaching New Delhi. “We’re extremely exhausted from the journey. We haven’t had a proper meal in four days,” a final-year student said.
Even after arriving in Delhi, home is still nearly 800 km away for many of them. Some plan to travel overnight to Jammu & Kashmir by bus, while others have booked domestic flights. For now, though, what matters most is that they are finally home and safe.
