GS Paul
Amritsar, March 3
Agony gave way to smiles and tears of joy for five students from Punjab who arrived at Sri Guru Ram Dass Jee International Airport here safely from war-torn Ukraine this evening.
Two of them belonged to Mukerian, while one each hailed from Amritsar, Tarn Taran and Jalandhar. Sharing their travails, the returnees said students were making it to the western border on their own.
Recalling the ordeal they faced on way to the Polish border, they said they left Kharkiv when things were relatively better.
Mannat Sharma, an Amritsar resident pursuing MBBS at Kharkiv National Medical University, said amid shelling, they shifted to the Metro station on February 27. She had posted a video of her walking towards the Metro station carrying essentials on her shoulder with a group of students headed towards Poland on March 1.
Expressing gratitude to the Indian authorities, she said: “Once we reached the Polish border, the Indian authorities made arrangements for our repatriation. I am still worried about those still stuck,” she said.
Mukerian-based Gurleen Kaur and Sugandha said it was tough for them to reach the border from Lviv. “With no help to move inside the Ukrainian territory, the real challenge was to reach the border,” they said.
Tarn Taran’s Saajandeep Singh Kahlon and Jalandhar’s Milap Singh were also stranded in Kharkiv and fled when curfew was eased.
5 land in Amritsar, say students in Ukraine on their own
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