Four Indians scammed into joining Russian army return home
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New Delhi: Four Indian citizens, who were fraudulently recruited into a private Russian army and forced to fight in the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict, have returned home with distressing accounts of their time in Russia. The Times of India reported that the men arrived back in India on Friday.
The four men, including Mohammad Sufiyan from Telangana and three others from Karnataka, were among approximately 60 young Indians who fell victim to a job scam. They had been lured to Russia with promises of work as security personnel or helpers, only to find themselves drafted into the Russian armed forces upon their arrival in December 2023.
Sufiyan, who had released a video seven months ago pleading for help, described the brutal conditions they faced. "We were treated like slaves," he told TOI. "We were woken up at 6 a.m. every day and forced to work for 15 hours straight, with little to no rest. The conditions were inhuman, and we had to survive on meagre rations." The men were tasked with digging trenches and operating military equipment, including assault rifles and explosives, with minimal training.
Syed Ilias Hussaini from Karnataka, another of the rescued men, said that fear and uncertainty dominated their lives in Russia, where they were cut off from their families and unsure if they would survive. "Our phones were confiscated, and we didn’t know when we’d return or when we could speak to our families again," he said. Hussaini added that despite returning home, the trauma of their experiences continues to haunt them.
The ordeal took a deadly turn for one of their friends, Hamil, from Gujarat, who was killed in a drone attack. His death, Sufiyan said, was a turning point that prompted the men to alert their families about their dire situation. The families reached out to India's External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar, who facilitated the men's rescue.
Many others remain stranded in Russia, awaiting help to return home while still being forced to serve in the war.
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Israel launches first airstrike on Lebanon since ceasefire, accusing Hezbollah of breaching truce
Beirut, Nov 28: The Israeli military on Thursday said its warplanes fired on southern Lebanon after detecting Hezbollah activity at a rocket storage facility, the first Israeli airstrike a day after a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah took hold.
There was no immediate word on casualties from Israel's aerial attack, which came hours after the Israeli military said it fired on people trying to return to certain areas in southern Lebanon. Israel said they were violating the ceasefire agreement, without providing details. Lebanon's state-run National News Agency said two people were wounded.
The back-to-back incidents stirred unease about the agreement, brokered by the United States and France, which includes an initial two-month ceasefire in which Hezbollah members are to withdraw north of the Litani River and Israeli forces are to return to their side of the border. The buffer zone would be patrolled by Lebanese troops and UN peacekeepers.
On Thursday, the second day of a ceasefire after more than a year of bloody conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, Lebanon's state news agency reported that Israeli fire targeted civilians in Markaba, close to the border, without providing further details. Israel said it fired artillery in three other locations near the border. There were no immediate reports of casualties.
An Associated Press reporter in northern Israel near the border heard Israeli drones buzzing overhead and the sound of artillery strikes from the Lebanese side.
The Israeli military said in a statement that “several suspects were identified arriving with vehicles to a number of areas in southern Lebanon, breaching the conditions of the ceasefire.” It said troops “opened fire toward them” and would “actively enforce violations of the ceasefire agreement.”
Israeli officials have said forces will be withdrawn gradually as it ensures that the agreement is being enforced. Israel has warned people not to return to areas where troops are deployed, and says it reserves the right to strike Hezbollah if it violates the terms of the truce.
A Lebanese military official said Lebanese troops would gradually deploy in the south as Israeli troops withdraw. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief media.
The ceasefire agreement announced late Tuesday ended 14 months of conflict between Israel and Hezbollah that began a day after Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023 attack out of Gaza, when the Lebanese Hezbollah group began firing rockets, drones and missiles in solidarity.
Israel retaliated with airstrikes, and the conflict steadily intensified for nearly a year before boiling over into all-out war in mid-September. The war in Gaza is still raging with no end in sight.
More than 3,760 people were killed by Israeli fire in Lebanon during the conflict, many of them civilians, according to Lebanese health officials. The fighting killed more than 70 people in Israel — over half of them civilians — as well as dozens of Israeli soldiers fighting in southern Lebanon.
Some 1.2 million people were displaced in Lebanon, and thousands began streaming back to their homes on Wednesday despite warnings from the Lebanese military and the Israeli army to stay out of certain areas. Some 50,000 people were displaced on the Israeli side, but few have returned and the communities near the northern border are still largely deserted.
In Menara, an Israeli community on the border with views into Lebanon, around three quarters of homes are damaged, some with collapsed roofs and burnt-out interiors. A few residents could be seen gathering their belongings on Thursday before leaving again.
