Three men from Karnataka’s Kalaburagi district, who were tricked by agents into working for the Russian army, recently came back home. Syed Ilyas Hussaini, Mohammed Sameer Ahmed, and Suqain Mohammed, all in their early 20s, said they returned to India with the help of the Ministry of External Affairs.
All three of them went to Russia in December last year through an agent who promised to get them jobs as security guards with a salary of Rs 70,000. But the moment they stepped on Russian soil, they realised they had been duped. Hussaini said there are more than 70 Indians who are still stuck in war-hit areas working for the Russian army.
Promised a salary of Rs 70,000 a month for a security guard job, Hussaini, who got Rs 80,000 for staying there for nine months, didn’t even bother to ask for his money and said his life was much more precious.
Speaking to The Indian Express, 24-year-old Hussaini, said, “I saw people who became my friends die right in front of my eyes. Every minute I lived in fear for my life and never thought that I would return to India,” said Hussaini.
“On December 19, 2023, I landed in Moscow and there was an Indian man named Moin Khan who picked us up and took us to his room. After two days, a few people from the Russian Army came in plain clothes and took us to another hotel. We were given new SIM and ATM cards and taken to an office. We were asked to sign a document in the Russian language. I tried to use an app to translate but was not allowed. I asked my agent but he said that it was all ‘setting’ and asked me to sign,” he said.
After this, Ahmed said, they were taken 400 km away from Moscow where their passports and other documents were taken away and uniforms of the Russian army given to them. “We were put into a flight and landed at the Ukraine border. We were trained for a month during which our mobile phones were confiscated. We were trained to use weapons like grenades, snipers, and short-range shooting. In January, we could not contact our family members as well,” he added.
After the training, all three were sent to the war zone in February where they worked more than 14 hours a day. “We lived in forests. We were left to dig trenches and create bunkers. We were given weapons. We got our mobile phones there and I called my father and the Embassy pleading with them to help,” he said.
Hussaini said they thought their chances of being alive were reduced the day Hemil Mangukiya from Gujarat Surat was killed in a drone attack.
“He was my friend and roommate. I was there digging the trench and he was standing on the ground when the drone killed him. That was the moment I thought I would die there. Though we refused to go to the battlefield, we were forced to and every minute we held our lives in the forests. We used to dig trenches and used to sleep inside it. There were times when we used to sleep in -3 degrees,” he said.
Fortunes for the three Karnataka men changed after Prime Minister Narendra Modi met Russian President Vladimir Putin. Hussaini said a day after PM Modi’s visit, his commanding officer received a call that all Indians must be relieved from service and should be sent back to the headquarters. “Then, we were sent to Moscow and then took a flight to Delhi. I get shivers even when I think about how I survived,” said Hussaini.
Hussaini’s father Syed Nawaz Ali, a head constable with Kalaburagi district police, said he is fortunate to see his son returning home. On Sunday, he met the deputy commissioner with his son to thank them for their efforts. “There were a lot of people who put their efforts to rescue our children. We can’t thank them enough. This is a second life for him,” Ali added.
Last week, six men, who were made to work in the Russian army after similarly being duped by agents, also returned to India early. Four men from Telangana, a man from Kashmir and another from Kolkata were among them.
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