Several Indians still missing in Russia, families petition government and Russian Embassy 

Mohammad Amin Sheikh, a resident of Jammu and Kashmir, said his son Zahoor Sheikh had last spoken with the family on December 31, 2023

Several Indian men who were fraudulently enlisted in the Russian Army and forcibly sent to the war zone on the Russia-Ukraine border are still said to be missing, months after Prime Minister Narendra Modi raised the issue with President Vladimir Putin, according to a communication from the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) with the family members of two missing persons.

Mohammad Amin Sheikh (65), a resident of Kupwara in Tangdhar in Jammu and Kashmir, said that his son Zahoor Sheikh (27) had last spoken with the family on December 31, 2023.

“He said that he was going for training and would not be available for the next three months on phone. But when we started getting news about the deaths of Indians in Russia in January, we got worried and called on his number. We could not reach him. We are yet to hear from him,” Mr. Sheikh, a retired Inspector from the Public Health Department, J&K, said.

After calling the Indian Embassy in Moscow several times and failing to get a positive response on the whereabouts of his son, Mr. Sheikh and his two other sons arrived in Delhi last week to seek answers from MEA and the Russian Embassy here.

“We submitted a petition at the Russian Embassy. They said they are looking into the matter. The MEA officials said that at least 15 Indians are still missing and though the Russian government is cooperative, their commanders on the ground are not responsive,” Aijaz Amin (31), Zahoor’s older brother, said, adding that they had changed several buses to reach Delhi. 

Mr. Amin said that Zahoor had been pursuing a Masters degree in Agriculture in Chandigarh, and had also been earning ₹33,000 in a part-time job.

“He had earlier worked for few months in Qatar during the FIFA World Cup last year. He travelled to Russia after he came across a YouTube video promising the job of a security helper in Russia. Instead, he was deceived into joining the Russian Army. He is the apple of everyone’s eye and we borrowed money to send him to Russia,” Mr. Amin said, adding that the family had been on a video call with Zahoor for more than an hour on December 31, the last time they had spoken.

Jagdeep Kumar, a resident of Jalandhar in Punjab, has also arrived in Delhi, seeking answers from the government regarding his brother Mandeep (30), who has been missing since March.

“We last spoke on March 3. He initially went to Armenia and was supposed to go to Italy from there in search of work. Instead, he was tricked by an agent to go to Russia and was forced to join the Russian Army. He was sent to the war zone after a few days of training,” Mr. Kumar said.

Mr. Kumar met MEA officials in Delhi, who told him that at least 25 Indians were said to be missing in Russia.

“The MEA officials told us that the Russian government wants to help but there was no response from the Army commanders on the ground. I tried approaching the Russian authorities through phone and spoke with them with the help of Google translate. They asked me for Mandeep’s badge number, which I do not have,” Mr. Kumar said.

External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar informed the Lok Sabha on August 9 that 91 Indians had been recruited for the Russian Army in the past nine months, and eight of them had been killed. He said that 69 Indians await release from the Russian Army, and Mr. Modi, during his visit to Moscow in July, had raised the issue “personally” with Mr. Putin.

Published - November 24, 2024 09:41 pm IST