When his wife gave birth to a boy in December 2023, Azad Yusuf Kumar promised himself that he would get a better job than his father, a poor laborer in Kashmir. Eager to work in India, the 31-year-old approached Dubai-based employment consultancy Baba Vlogs later in the year. Azad left his home in Poswan in Pulwama district for Dubai on December 14, 2023, just days after giving birth to his wife.
The science graduate saw a promotional video on YouTube from Baba Vlogs offering jobs in Dubai to candidates like him. Contacted by Sajad Ahmad Kumar, his elder brother worldAffirms that Azad was offered a job as an assistant in a hotel. “We lost touch with him for a while. When he finally called after about 20 days, he said he had been duped and taken to an undisclosed location in Russia, where he underwent weapons training for 15 days with ‘a dozen other Indians’.Sajjad Ahmad Kumar said.
During his training period, Azad Yusuf Kumar suffered a leg injury and was hospitalized for about twenty days. “Once his wound is healed, His brother is related, He was deployed near the front line with the Russian army. I spoke to him on December 26. He kept on crying. He told me he wanted to come home. »
“My son does not understand Russian”
The young man’s thirty-year-old mother, Raja Bano, a housewife, assures that her son was happy to get a job in Dubai. “I learned that he was in a hostile situation on the border of Russia and Ukraine. He told me he was stuck and there was no way he was going to get home.”, she explains between sobs. Her son was allegedly locked in a room by the Russians for several days after refusing to join the army.
According to his father, Mohammad Yusuf Kumar, the Russians seized his mobile phone and a dozen Indians who accompanied him when he landed in Moscow in January. “He was asked to sign documents written in Russian. The Russians threatened to kill him if he did not sign. My son does not understand Russian. How can he know what is written on the paper? »It flows.
Azad Yusuf Kumar is part of a group of Indians who are sent against their will to fight in Ukraine alongside the Russian army. This information was revealed by the daily Hindu, on February 20, and was confirmed by the Ministry of External Affairs after several days of silence. Around 20 Indians from Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Kashmir, farmers, workers, students, unemployed, in search of better paying jobs, have been stranded in the border regions of Kharkiv, Mariupol, Rostov and Donetsk since November 2023. between Russia and Ukraine. A 23-year-old Gujarati Indian was reportedly killed in the missile attack.
You have 42.57% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.
