Two more local youth deceived into war zone deployment
Bivek Mathur
JAMMU, Sept 14: On September 13 (Saturday), Sachin Khajuria, 23, son of Banarsi Lal of Pahariwala area in Khour tehsil of Jammu district, made a distressed WhatsApp call to his brother Koushal Khajuria from Moscow.
In the call, Sachin pleaded: “Please make all out efforts to ensure my return from Russia well before something untoward happens here, as I’m being sent to a forward post along the Ukrainian border by the Russian Army.”
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According to Koushal, his brother, Sachin and two other youth of Jammu-Atul from Bawe Tallab, Mishriwala, and Sumit Sharma from Kanachak-along with 12 other youth from across the nation, were tricked by a Russian woman agent identified as Anastiya.
According to him, she allegedly offered them lucrative jobs in bunker construction near the Ukrainian border with promises of a one-time payment of Rs 20 lakh, a monthly salary of Rs 2.5 lakh, and other benefits.
Believing the offer, he said, the students signed an undertaking written in Russian, which was misinterpreted in English.
“They later realised they had unknowingly been enrolled into the Russian Army,” he said.
Koushal further said the youth are now facing deployment at frontline positions, despite having no military training or preparation.
Koushal, along with other families of the affected students said their wards had gone abroad only for academic purposes but were misled into dangerous situations.
They stressed that the students were assured of non-combat roles related to construction but were instead pushed into active military duties without training or equipment.
Alarmed by the developments, the families have reached out to their elected representatives and also requested the MoS in PMO Dr Jitendra Singh for help.
Accordingly, the matter has been taken up with the External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, with requests for immediate intervention to secure the safe release of the stranded youth.
In their appeals, the parents highlighted their growing anxiety, saying their children were exposed to life-threatening risks in an armed conflict they had no role in. They urged the Union Government to step in through diplomatic and humanitarian channels at the earliest.
The families also demanded strict action against those responsible for misleading Indian youth and called for relief measures for others who might be trapped in similar circumstances.
“A timely intervention can save lives and bring immense relief to parents who remain in constant fear for their children’s safety,” the families said.
Pertinently, the Indian Government has time and again requested the Russian Government to stop recruiting Indians for the combatant roles at the frontline, with a further plea to release those already recruited, but without any relief so far.
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