When his wife gave birth to a boy in December 2023, Aazad Yousuf Kumar promised himself that he would find a good job, better than that of his father, a poor laborer from Kashmir. Desperate to work in India, the 31-year-old contacted Baba Vlogs, an employment consultancy company based in Dubai, at the end of the year. Aazad left his home in Poshwan in Pulwama district for Dubai on December 14, 2023, just days after his wife gave birth.
This science graduate had seen a promotional video on YouTube from Baba Vlogs offering jobs in Dubai to candidates like him. Sajad Ahmad Kumar, his elder brother, contacted by The worldassures that Aazad was offered a job as an assistant in a hotel. “We lost contact with him for a while. When he finally called after about 20 days, he said he had been duped and taken to an unknown location in Russia, where he received weapons training for 15 days, along with »a dozen other Indians»said Sajad Ahmad Kumar.
During his training period, Aazad Yousuf Kumar injured his foot and was hospitalized for around 20 days. “Once his wound is healed, says his brother, he was deployed near the front line with the Russian army. I spoke to him on December 26. He cried constantly. He told me he wanted to come home. »
“My son doesn’t understand Russian”
The young thirty-year-old’s mother, Raja Bano, a housewife, assures that her son was happy to have landed a job in Dubai. “I learned that he was on the border between Russia and Ukraine, in a hostile situation. He told me he was stuck and there was no way he could get home.», she explains between sobs. Her son was allegedly locked in a room by Russians for several days after he refused to join the army.
According to his father, Mohammad Yousuf Kumar, the Russians confiscated his mobile phone and those of a dozen Indians who accompanied him when they landed in Moscow in January. “We asked the signatory for documents written in Russian. The Russians threatened to kill them if they didn’t sign. My son doesn’t understand Russian. How could he have known what was written on the paper? »he gets carried away.
Aazad Yousuf Kumar is part of a group of Indians sent against their will to fight against Ukraine alongside the Russian army. The information was revealed by the daily The Hindu, on February 20, and confirmed, after several days of silence, by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Around twenty Indians, farmers, workers, students, unemployed, from Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Kashmir, lured by well-paid jobs, have been stranded since November 2023 in the regions of Kharkiv, Mariupol, Rostov and Donetsk, along the border between Russia and Ukraine. A 23-year-old Gujarati Indian was reportedly killed in a missile attack.
You have 42.57% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.