Rajia Begum and her son Nizamuddin. File | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
Her son is stuck in Sumy bordering Russia
A school teacher in Nizamabad, who had travelled 1,400 km on a two-wheeler all by herself to bring back her son stranded in Nellore, Andhra Pradesh, following the sudden imposition of lockdown in March 2020, is in distress again.
Razia Begum’s 19-year-old Nizammudin Aman is stuck in Sumy, a city in north-eastern Ukraine, where he is pursuing MBBS first-year studies. He is among the 500-odd Indian students cooped up in hostel rooms or bunkers even as Russia has escalated the military offensive on the war-hit country. The students stuck there say Sumy, close to the Russia border, has been badly affected. The nearest metro station was blown up, and roadways are damaged too, they say. The distressed mother has written to Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao, Home Minister Mohammed Mahmood Ali, and senior State government officials on Wednesday requesting help in evacuating her son from Ukraine.
Back in March 2020, Nizam had gone to Nellore to drop off a friend. They were undergoing coaching for NEET-PG. As lockdown was suddenly announced, Ms Razia, who works as a teacher at Salampad Camp village at Bodhan in Nizamabad, set off on a solo journey to rescue her stranded son.
With just a pack of rotis, fruits, and a five-litre fuel can on April 6, 2020, Ms Razia embarked on a long, arduous journey on her two-wheeler. She drove alongside heavy vehicles on highways, even at night, and reached Nellore the next day. After picking up her son, they drove back to their home in Bodhan. Ms Razia lost her husband, also a school teacher, 14 years ago due to kidney failure. In the letter addressed to the government officials, she stated that the medical condition and helplessness made her son opt for the medical profession so that he could serve such patients in future.
Nizam is once again stranded, this time in a far-away country, amid a hostile situation, and Ms Razia cannot stop feeling anxious. “They are not able to get out of there since it is not safe to step out. I appeal to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to rescue my son along with other Indian students stuck there,” she appealed.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> National> Telangana / by K Shiva Shanker / Hyderabad – March 07th, 2022
An Indian student reunited with her family members after being evacuated from war-torn Ukraine, on March 4 | Photo Credit: –
The students said that there are regular power outages
Indian students stuck in Sumy, Ukraine, are in dire situation. After a bomb exploded in the city on Thursday evening, there is no water supply to them. The students said that they are forced to collect snow, melt and use it for drinking, cooking.
“We stored some water yesterday which was over by Friday morning. So we have collected the snow in buckets, melted it, filtered and consumed it,” said Abdul Rawoof, one among close to 600-800 Indian students in Sumy waiting to be rescued.
Another student Nizammudin Aman said that the water supply is cut off from Thursday night. “Thankfully it’s heavily snowing today. So now we’re collecting snow from outside our hostel and melting it using electric induction and kettles,” said Mr. Nizammudin.
It started snowing from Friday morning. The distressed students who were in need of water found it to be a blessing in the harrowing time. Their primary request is to be evacuated. With no supply of water, their washrooms have become stinky.
The students said that there are regular power outages. Since it started snowing, they need heaters which function when there is power supply. Other basic thing which they are running out of is food. Super markets are closed. Only cash is accepted to buy groceries but ATMs have run out of cash.
“Our contactor is providing one meal a day. We are arranging another meal using bread, nutella, eggs,” said Mr. Rawoof. The students have been urging Indian government to evacuate them at the earliest. They have started uploading videos on social media platforms explaining their situation and requesting for help.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> National> Telangana / by K Shiva Shankar / Hyderabad, March 04th, 2022
His short film Please Hold is in the reckoning for an Oscar.
(L-R) Farhad Ahmed Dehlvi; a moment from Please Hold
Please Hold, a 19-minute sci-fi short about a young man’s life being derailed as he finds himself at the mercy of automated “justice”, is in the running for an Academy Award in the category of Best Live Action Short Film. Please Hold has been shot by ace cinematographer Farhad Ahmed Dehlvi, who has films like four-time Oscar winner Life of Pi, among others, to his credit. The Telegraph caught up with Dehlvi, who was born and raised in Delhi, for a chat on Please Hold, his craft and more.
Congratulations for Please Hold’s Oscar nomination. You are not new to awards and accolades, but does the fact that this is an Academy Award nomination make it more special?
It is special because of the history and prestige associated with the Oscars, and also the fact that ours is a Latino story, an outsider’s story about the privatised prison system in America and the degree of control technology can hold over our lives. I’m glad to see the Academy recognising this kind of work.
You can’t think about the outcome, awards or accolades while making a film… each film is a leap of faith. You hope that you do justice to the story and that it will have an impact on the audience. I’m happy that the film moved members of the Academy enough to vote in our favour. The nomination is a real honour and we have our fingers crossed for March 27. I hope people watch our film and hopefully engage in the ongoing conversations about the subject!
What makes Please Hold different from the other prestigious projects that you have shot?
One of the things I’m most proud of in Please Hold is the tone we struck, both visually, and in how the story plays out. It is a dark comedy that gets increasingly absurd and Kafkaesque. I drew inspiration from the portraits of Lucien Freud and the films Minority Report and Trainspotting. By the end of the film, I hope that you’re left with a pit in your stomach because of how closely this ‘science fiction’ parallels our reality.
One of the challenges of a short is that there isn’t much screen time to set up the world, to build context for the story. As a cinematographer, I search for ways to do this as simply and effectively as possible. With Please Hold, we found an elegant solution — to have a mural on the wall behind the character in the opening scene. The mural, which depicts a fire-breathing, rampaging robot with Lilliputian humans trying to control it, tells us so much about the world and setting of the film.
Our resources were very limited and we benefited from a lot of goodwill from within both the industry and the community. In particular, Panavision, with whom I’ve worked for many years, supported the project with a camera package and our choice of ‘Panavision Ultra Speed’ lenses to tell this story.
Your work, both as cinematographer and film-maker, has been eclectic. What would you pick as the biggest turning points in your career?
After finishing grad school at the American Film Institute in Los Angeles, I spent a few years travelling across the US working on documentary projects. My time on the road, especially in the rural south, was a real schooling in the stratifications and power structures of American society, and triggered a process of reflection that has given me a new perspective on my own culture and my childhood in India. Looking back, I’d have to say the biggest turning points have been the collaborators I met, some of whom have become like family now. They’ve taken me on journeys I could never have dreamed of, tasking me to lend images to their stories.
A large part of your work focuses on making the universal personal. What is the key to achieving that?
I strongly believe that beyond entertaining or diverting us, inclusive cinema has the power to bridge cultural divides, to help us recognise our own pathos as we see it in others. I acknowledge the dignity of those that stand in front of my lens, I accept their nuance and individuality, and treat each one as the hero of their own story.
I don’t use the camera as a shield or a dividing line on set. I recognise the intimacy between subject and cinematographer and step out from behind the lens and acknowledge that the actors are more than icons or subjects and they are living, breathing people. Of course you do this while respecting the actors’ space and their own process.
My hope is that when the credits roll at the end of a film, the audience has a moment, however brief or subliminal, where they see their own circumstances in a different light and through the shared experience of the film, perhaps feel more closely connected to the person in the next seat.
I draw a lot of influence from the world outside of film. In recent years I have been studying folk crafts, both across India and the ‘Mingei’ movement in Japan. In particular, I’ve been looking at the use of pattern, and how a motif evolves over time. The timeless quality of traditional patterns is something I want to infuse into my work. The writing of Soetsu Yanagi has had a big impact on me. Also the artist Agnes Martin and photographer Sebastiao Salgado.
Your work is distinguished by its simplicity. In this age of visual effects and tech tools, how do you manage to retain that?
My first priority is always to serve the story. Everything I do, my creative choices, my methodology, the technical decisions are all in service of translating the essence of the written word into images that can connect the audience with our characters. I spend a lot of time with the material in pre-production to ensure that I’m prepared to actively create the visuals while ensuring that the mechanistic aspects of our work don’t disrupt the flow of the performances. This often involves months of work together with the director and production designer where we break down the film and build the visual language piece by piece, talking about light, colour, movement, and also how we can best use the set design and blocking to support our storytelling.
I aim to create a safe and flexible space for the actors and director to work in. I try to keep the equipment and crew outside the set as much as possible, and once we are into a scene, be ready to capture the performances that unfold.
Of course, there are times when a scene calls for a more technical approach, whether it is a precisely constructed camera movement or a particular lighting technique. These moments can feel more mechanical on set, but you have to trust the medium, trust the craft, and if you’re in service of the story, then the final scene, when it plays on screen, will look effortless and truly emotional. The audience will be transported into the movie. These moments are far more effective when you’ve built them into the grammar of the visual storytelling, contrasted them against the quiet moments in the film. It is like a piece of music — you need the pianissimo to feel the effect of the big crescendos. So I wouldn’t say that I eschew any particular tech tools or follow a dogmatic approach of simplicity. I’m always in service of each moment in the story.
Growing up in Delhi, was there an epiphanic moment that made you want to pursue this as both career and passion?
There are many! With both parents working in the industry, I was introduced to films at an early age One moment comes to mind — my first memory looking through the viewfinder of a camera. A visiting photographer, a friend of my parents, allowed me to look through his camera. It was a Hasselblad, a medium-format still camera, and had a viewfinder that showed you a reversed image that was very crisp, almost like a 3D projection. I fell in love with the way this camera’s viewfinder made the everyday image of our garden look magical, more real than reality, like a glimmering 3D projection. I was quite young at the time, and was enchanted with this ‘black box’ that could literally turn the world inside out. Of course now I understand the physics behind it.
I love the mechanical, the optical, the photochemical side of film-making, and I think this goes all the way back to my earliest experiences with a still camera. Getting some black-and-white film out of my father’s ‘stash’ in the fridge, watching him load it into the camera, going out and pressing the shutter with a child’s curiosity and then watching the images develop in a darkroom tray. This process has always been magical for me — a kind of alchemy, pulling images from a place that lies even beyond my imagination. I try and bring that curiosity to my work every day.
Is directing a natural extension of your work in cinematography?
I have always been narratively driven in my work, and having been in the director’s chair has made me a more sensitive and thoughtful cinematographer. I can see things with a broader perspective, am better able to shoot “for the edit” and am more closely in tune with the overall rhythm of the film. I think each informs the other, but I don’t see directing as an extension of cinematography.
I’d like to explore directing, particularly in episodic fiction while continuing to work as a cinematographer. There are several cinematographers who are balancing directing and shooting. Andrij Parekh did this with HBO’s Succession a few years ago, and Dana Gonzales on Fargo.
source: http://www.telegraphindia.com / The Telegraph Online / Home> My Kolkata> Life Style – Oscar / by Priyanka Roy / March 01st, 2022
Union Minister for Minority Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi receives Indian nationals, who have been safely evacuated from Ukraine, as a part of ‘Operation Ganga’, at Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi. | Photo Credit: PTI
1,200 walk 15 km out of city after embassy advisory; 60 bused out after 18 hour wait
Following the government’s “urgent advisory” asking all Indian nationals to leave Kharkiv and reach towns on its outskirts, hundreds of students, who braved bombs to cover a 10-15km of journey on foot, were on Thursday unaware of what they were expected to do next, or if there was a plan to evacuate them.
“We have been told to wait for embassy officials who may come tonight, but we are not sure if that will happen,” said Mohammed Thaha Sheikh, a student of Kharkiv National Medical University, from an abandoned hotel in Pisochyn, a western suburb of Kharkiv.
On Thursday, the Indian Embassy in Kyiv issued an advisory asking all Indian nationals in Kharkiv to leave the city “immediately” and asked them to proceed to Pisochyn, Babaye and Bezlyudovka on the west and south of Kharkiv. Everyone was told to reach these towns by 6 p.m. local time
At the time the advisory was issued, Mr. Sheikh said he was at the Kharkiv train station amidst “intense shelling”. While some girls were allowed to board a train, hundreds of other Indian students were not allowed to do so, he said. “Five trains crossed us but we were not allowed to board them. The ticket collector was allowing only Ukrainian women and children. I have heard there was also violence and some students were thrown off a train,” said Mr. Sheikh.
As the 6 p.m. deadline was approaching, he along with 1,200 others decided to proceed to Pisochyn. They covered a distance of 12 kms in three hours in relative peace once they hit the highway. But before that there were Ukrainian military men and tanks enroute and they were told to “run fast” and were also provided shelter for “10-15 minutes” by Ukrainian soldiers. Once they reached Pisochyn, they found an abandoned hotel.
“They were not expecting us there and there were only two-three staff. They assigned us two buildings, but there is no food here,” said Mr. Sheikh.
18 hours later, the students were still waiting to hear from the embassy on the next course of action.
Later in the evening, their student co-ordinator (or agent) started arranging buses and 60 students left in two buses to the western border.
Russia on Thursday said it was considering providing a humanitarian corridor so that Indian students in cities in eastern Ukraine such as Kharkiv and Sumy could be evacuated through Russian territory. For those who manage to escape the war zones, the journey back to India is a long one.
At a shelter in Bercini in Romania, Tanya Shekhar has been waiting for nearly four days for news from the local Indian embassy on their transportation to the city airport. She is part of a group of 47 students “We spent 48 hours at the border check-post standing in the open in sub-zero temperatures and managed to cross the border. But there was no embassy official in sight.
We have been at a shelter arranged by the Romanian government since February 28. Though we have been mailing the embassy and calling their helpline to know about our transportation, we only heard back from them today. We have been told there will be a bus today,” said Ms. Shekhar.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> National / by Jagriti Chandra / New Delhi – March 03rd, 2022
A view shows thermal power plant destroyed by shelling, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine, in the town of Okhtyrka in the Sumy region, Ukraine, in this handout picture released on March 4, 2022. | Photo Credit: Reuters
Their fate hangs in the balance as there is no progress on ‘humanitarian corridor’ for evacuation
The fate of several hundreds of students at Sumy in eastern Ukraine hangs in the balance as there was little progress on a “humanitarian corridor” for evacuation of civilians on Friday, while students who were able to reach Pesochin from Kharkiv after an advisory continued to leave for the western border on privately arranged buses.
“There were air-strikes and bombings on Sumy yesterday, which led to power and water supply being cut-off. We spent the entire night without electricity, and we can’t cook without water. If we don’t get killed by bombs, we will definitely die of starvation and thirst,” says Shivangi Jaiswal, who shared videos of students collecting snow and water from roof channels.
She says that unlike Kharkiv, where there was some movement because of a train station, Sumy is cut off from all sides as roads and rail tracks have been damaged, entrapping students in their hostel bunkers.
“Only a government intervention can help us escape from here. But it seems no decisions are being taken for Sumy,” said Ms. Jaiswal
‘Buses not helpful’
On Thursday, Russia and Ukraine agreed to create humanitarian corridors for evacuation of civilians and there were reports that 130 buses were waiting on the Russian border for Indian students.
But Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said at a press interaction on Friday that there would be difficulties in evacuating students from an active conflict zone until there was a ceasefire and Russian buses were very far from Kharkiv and Sumy and were not proving to be helpful.
Reacting to these comments from Sumy, Zara Azan said, “the government says they are waiting for us at the borders. I want to ask them, if you can’t brave the shelling to reach us, then how do you expect young college students to make their way to the border without cabs, buses or trains. The least the embassy can do is arrange buses for us.”
“Yesterday we saw several fighter planes drop bombs just metres away from our hostel, and several girls fainted on seeing that. Increasingly, children are falling sick due to cold or complaining of low blood sugar levels or suffering panic attacks. We may even have to carry them while planning our escape as we can’t leave our friends behind,” said Zara.
She asked why did the embassy not forewarn its citizens about escalating tensions between Russia and Ukraine.
“In February, I had to travel from India to Ukraine and I called the Indian embassy to know if it was safe to travel as several other countries had started issuing advisories for their citizens and I was told that I could travel,” says Zara.
‘No info on exit plan’
In Pesochin, where nearly 1,200 students fled to from Kharkiv following a government advisory on Wednesday, students continued to leave for the western border on privately arranged buses for which they have paid from their own pocket. They were earlier expecting that they would be able to make their escape through the border with Russia on buses they believed the embassy would arrange for them.
“There is no information yet from the embassy on an exit plan for us through Russia. Our student coordinator has arranged a few buses and we are slowly leaving on them. Two buses with 60 students left yesterday and nearly six are leaving today. We have been told that all students will be able to leave Pesochin by Saturday,” said Mohamed Thaha Sheikh.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> India> National / by Jagriti Chandra / New Delhi – March 04th, 2022
Veteran Indian diplomat Anwar Haleem today assumed charge as the Ambassador of India to the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.
The new Ambassador was given warm welcome by all Mission officials in Amman upon his arrival at the Embassy premises. He presented a copy of his Credentials to H.E. Mr. Zaid Al-Louzi, Secretary General, Foreign Ministry in Amman.
Anwar Haleem is an IFS officer passed out in 1991. He was working as the Additional Secretary in the National Defence College before taking charge as an ambassador.
Anwar Haleem obtained the MA degree in Indian History and International Studies from JNU. He joined M Phil in Disarmament Division as JRF Scholars. He has MBA Finance & LLB. He has a very distinguished academic record and varied experience in public affairs.
Anwar Haleem joined the Indian Foreign Service in 1991. He has served at Indian missions in Egypt, UAE and Saudi Arabia. He has vast experience of working in different divisions of the Ministry of External Affairs.
Haleem has served in different capacities in foreign missions, covering range of political, economic, cultural and community affairs activities as well as crisis management. He has Arabic as his foreign language with vast experience of Gulf and Muslims countries.
At South Block, he was the Desk officer for Sri Lanka and later Director for Latin American Countries, Director SAARC and Director Gulf. He has served as Deputy Director General of India Council of cultural Relations (ICCR), India Council of World Affairs (ICWA) and Joint Secretary in MEA.
Haleem has been the editor of ‘Gagananchal’ a Hindi magazine and ‘India Quarterly’, published by SAGE. He has published works on Technology Transfer from MacGraw Hill.
source: http://www.newsbharati.com / NewsBharati.com / Home / August 01st, 2019
Screenshot from a video sent to The Peninsula by one of the students
Doha :
Around 23 Doha-based Indian medical students in Ukraine’s Kharkiv university have been staying in bunkers for the last four nights as fierce fighting between the Russian and Ukrainian forces has prevented them from fleeing the war-torn country.
The panic-stricken parents of these stranded students shared their anxiety with The Peninsula yesterday while requesting Indian authorities to quickly make arrangements for bringing back their children safely.
“It’s scary. We’re worried about the plight of our children after receiving disturbing text messages from them.
Even in this difficult situation, they’re consoling us saying Allah will show a way to overcome, says Doha resident Aysha Saibool, mother of Dua Khadeeja, a first-year medical student at the V N Karazin Kharkiv National University in Kharkiv.
She said that her daughter has informed that it will take at least seven hours from Kharkiv to reach the nearest border and since no security is guaranteed it is unsafe to travel.
The plight of the stranded students in the war zone was raised by her with the Minister of State of India’s External Affairs, V Muraleedharan.
The Minister said that travelling from Kharkiv, which lies in the eastern part of Ukraine, to the south – west borders of Romania, Hungary or Poland is not safe. He advised the students to stay where they are, until they receive further instructions from the Indian Embassy in Ukraine.
Dua Khadeeja
The Peninsula contacted Dua Khadeeja over telephone in Kharkiv and she said that she and 131 other students were stranded in the Mir hotel bunker in dire condition. They were told not to move out because of security reasons.
“We are sitting inside the bunker with the hope that we will be evacuated soon. Everyone is terrified. Some experience nose bleeding due to allergies and severe cold,” said Dua.
“There’s hardly any space to stand. We cannot even go to toilet. This morning we were allowed to go to hostel for a few minutes to freshen up. That was a little bit of comfort from this harrowing experience. Dua said that food is provided at the bunker.
The parents of Doha-based students have been sharing the latest developments through their whatsapp group.
Nusrath Shamseer, whose daughter Fathima Sharbeen is also stranded in the hostel bunker in Kharkiv University, said they are worried about the situation. Fathima’s classmates Hiba and Riya are also staying in the hostel bunker since Thursday.
Fathima Sharbeen
“The easiest way for the students from Kharkiv to be evacuated is via Russia. But it is dangerous to cross the border without adequate security escorts from both Ukraine and Russia,” one parent said quoting his son’s message.
“The alternative routes are Romanian border in the south-west and Poland, Hungary and Slovakia in the west. These are too far from Karkhiv,” he added.
India has so far evacuated 709 students from Ukraine with the third flight carrying 240 students arriving in Delhi from the Hungarian capital Budapest last morning. The flight landed a few hours after Air India’s second evacuation flight from the Romanian capital Bucharest carrying 250 Indian nationals landed at Delhi Airport.
India’s evacuation operation of its stranded citizens, codenamed as ‘Ganga’, began on Saturday with the first flight bringing back 219 people from Bucharest to Mumbai.
Disturbing accounts by Indian students stranded in Ukraine are also circulating in social media with some complaining that they were beaten up by Ukrainian forces and were being kept from leaving the country.
According to Ukraine’s Ministry of Education and Science, there are over 18,000 students from India study in the country. Most of the students are from the southern Indian state of Kerala.
source: http://www.thepeninsulaqatar.com / The Peninsula / Home> Qatar> General / March 01st, 2022
Salman, along with countless others have been left to navigate to borders 800 kms away as the Indian government has absolved themselves of any responsibility.
Salman (Left) and his friend Samiuddin. (Screengrab: Twitter)
Hyderabad:
At 8:30 pm, IST, Salman Mohiuddin, one of the countless Indian students stuck in Ukraine, over a WhatsApp call narrated the horrors he had witnessed over the last few days. His voice was meek, with hints of helplessness. He rushed through his statements and made it a point to mention that there was hope if the government chose to help them.
He used the collective word ‘them’ instead of the singular ‘me‘, as in times of war, nobody speaks in the singular.
Salman, along with countless others, has been stranded in the war-torn country since Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a military offensive against Ukraine, leaving expatriates stranded miles away from their homeland.
As a large number of students from the Dnipropetrovsk Medical Institute of Traditional and Alternative Medicine hurried to the airports in an attempt to fly to safety before the dreaded war began, their hopes were crushed as they were prevented from flying minutes before they boarded their flights.
“We were asked to leave the airport by officials and seek shelter elsewhere. A few minutes later, we heard a bomb detonate. We were a mere 1.6 kilometers from the bomb,” said a passive Salman over the call with Siasat.com.
Salman’s testimony made one thing clear.
The war had begun.
Students up until then were in a close-knit group. When the bomb made its presence known, they panicked and ran in different directions. Salman along with five of his friends ran towards and found shelter in the Kyiv Medical University’s hostel alongside 150 other resident students. Others ran towards the embassy in search of refuge.
When asked about bare necessities, Salman said that for the moment things were fine.
“We are a group of over 150 Indian students who are currently stuck in Kyiv. We have sufficient food to eat as we found shelter in the university’s hostel,” added Salman.
Salman’s account of Ukraine as mentioned before extends beyond his own self. While he hasn’t witnessed bodily offenses, he discusses how he has heard violence. The auditory account of violence is conveyed in his meek and yet somehow, detached tone.
“My friends who ran towards the Indian Embassy had been given shelter in a school nearby. However, the students have been struggling with little food, and are forced to bear the chilly weather, without mattresses or proper arrangements for a good night’s sleep,” he says.
Indian government and where they stand:
After three days of waiting around the students were able to contact the Indian Embassy in Ukraine.
“We were able to get in touch with the Embassy after a while. The Indian government claims to be rescuing students from Ukraine but we have been left to survive on our own,” said Salman. His up till then placid tone shifts to one of betrayal. “How can he do this to us?” he asks.
“We have been asked to stay where we are until the situation improves. The Embassy has left us to navigate the borders on our own, which are over 800 kilometers away,” said a now rootless Salman.
To make matters worse, the Indian embassy in Ukraine on Monday advised all Indian students stranded in Kyiv to reach the railway station in the Ukrainian capital for their onward journey to the western parts of the war-torn country.
The Indian government has so far rescued 907 stranded citizens from Ukraine following Russia’s military offensive against Ukraine.
Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said that approximately 13,000 Indians are stranded in Ukraine as of now, and the government is making efforts to bring them back as soon as possible.
Salman’s Hyderabad connection:
Salman’s family resides in Hyderabad’s Bahadurpura and like most families in Telangana has appealed to the state chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao for help. Rao had earlier assured support for students from Telangana stranded in Ukraine.
Salman has earlier shared a video message, where he had shared glimpses of the heavily populated basement of the KMU as he pleaded with the Indian government for help.
Salman’s family resides in Hyderabad’s Bahadurpura and has appealed to the state chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao for help, as he has promised to extend support in bringing back the students who are stranded in Ukraine, a copy of which has been accessed by Siasat.com.
“I spoke to my son a few hours ago. He told me that a few Ukrainian soldiers had tried to force their way into the hostel however were stopped and sent away by their hostel security guard. They are all stuck in the abasement of the hostel of KMU,” said Salman’s father Dr. Ghulam Mohiuddin.
They are stuck in Ukraine amidst a war. We are worried about them as bombs are dropping a few kilometers away from their location. We are appealing to the government for help,” said a helpless father.
Salman’s twin brother, Nomaan Hyder, who resides in Kazakistan, was the first to reach out to Siasat.com seeking help for his brother.
“He has been stuck in the basement alongside other students and we have been informed that they heard shots being fired at a distance when the Ukrainian soldiers arrived at the hostel. No one was hurt, however. Our family has been kept in the dark about a few terrifying incidents that have unfolded before my brother’s eyes in Ukraine,” said Nomaan.
The ongoing Russia-Ukraine War
The Russian army has launched coordinated missile attacks on several Ukrainian cities including the capital city Kyiv, on Thursday in Europe’s worst conflict in decades that was launched by Vladimir Putin on Thursday.
Negotiation talks are taking place in Belarus for Kyiv and Moscow however with little expectations.
Before the meeting, President Zelensky urged Russian forces to lay down their weapons and called for immediate EU membership.
On the fifth day of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, people in Kyiv are emerging from their homes after a weekend-long curfew.
As the Russian currency plunges, the interest rate is increased by 20 percent and experts warn of a possible run on banks.
UK’s defense secretary says that Russia could indiscriminately bomb cities as its frustration grows.
The northeastern city of Chernihiv was heavily bombed overnight however is still under Ukrainian control. However, reports of Belarus, a Russian ally, have decided to deploy its own soldiers to fight.
A number of World leaders have condemned the invasion and imposed sanctions against Russia, however, they have left little to no impact on the war-driven country. The US, EU, UK, and other allies have reportedly agreed to remove some Russian banks from the Swift payments system.
Germany also announced that it is sending anti-tank missiles and other weapons to Ukraine – marking a major change in policy.
A curfew had been put in place from Saturday to Monday morning after Russian missiles hit an oil depot in Vasylkiv, its mayor said, which has prompted fears of toxic fumes. Anyone who is seen on the street during the curfew will be treated as a Russian “saboteur”, said the capital’s mayor.
A large number of people have already fleed Ukraine, while some attempt to flee the war-struck country with a 27-hour-long queue of women and children, on the Moldovan border.
Heavy street fighting took place in Kyiv on Saturday as officials urged locals to take immediate shelter. Kyiv was struck by two missiles. As many as 198 Ukrainians, including three children, have been killed since the invasion began.
source: http://www.siasat.com / The Siasat Daily / Home> News> Hyderabad / by Syeda Faiza Kirmani / February 28th, 2022
Hyderabads Humera and Rashmikaa with the doubles trophies.
Hyderabad:
Hyderabad tennis players Shrivalli Rashmikaa and Humera Baharmus pair lifted the women’s doubles crown at the Haryana Women’s ITF $15k tennis tournament, in Gurugram on Saturday.
The talented youngsters, who were unseeded in the tournament, defeated top seeds Kovapitukted Punin of Thailand and Anna Ureke of Russia 6-3, 1-6, 10-3.
This is their maiden ITF women’s title. In the singles, Rashmikaa lost to Kovapitukted Punin in quarterfinals on Friday.
Safana Shamna who was selected for Sustainability Leadership Programme offered by Geneva-based United People Global. | Photo Credit: The Hindu
Safana Shamna, a young social worker and Kudumbashree trainer from Mankada in Malappuram district, has been selected for this year’s Sustainability Leadership Programme offered by Geneva-based United People Global (UPG).
She is among the handful of Indians who made it to the 500 young leaders selected from 159 countries. Announcing the selection, the UPG said that Ms. Shamna was selected after an intense review by 130 panelists.
The UPG offers training in sustainability leadership every year for select candidates from across the world. “It gives nine-week-long classes in sustainable leadership with the objective of attaining social sustainability,” said Ms. Shamna.
The chairperson of the Mankada Readers Forum, Ms. Shamna is also the district treasurer of Haritha, the women’s wing of the Muslim Students Federation. “I have been focusing on the idea of attaining sustainable development through mini training sessions,” she said.
The UPG Sustainability Leadership Programme classes will begin on March 14.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> National> Kerala / by Staff Reporter / Malappuram – February 15th, 2022
