‘We were just praying’: Pakistani students flee war-torn Iran | Israel-Iran conflict news

Islamabad, Pakistan – It was the first working day of the week and 23-year-old Pakistani medical student Muhammad Raza was helping doctors treat patients at Tehran University of Medical Sciences Hospital in the Iranian capital.

A loud explosion brought the ward to a standstill. Israel and the United States began bombing Iran in a joint operation on the morning of February 28.

“We were hearing about the impending attack, and when it struck, it sent a surge of anxiety and fear through my body,” Raza told Al Jazeera from inside a bus en route to Islamabad on Tuesday.

As chaos and fear gripped Tehran after the bombing, Raza rushed to his hostel near the hospital compound and immediately called the Pakistani embassy, ​​less than 2km (1.2 miles) away.

The mission instructed them to collect the essentials by the evening before arranging to send them and the other students home.

“It was really scary. We were all scared of what might happen and wanted to reach Pakistan as soon as possible,” said Raza.

Muhammad Tauqeer, another Pakistani medical student, told Al Jazeera that he was on a field assignment away from the college campus when the strikes began.

“The second we heard the first strike in Tehran, everything went into chaos. People rushed outside. Our teachers told the foreign students to immediately seek help from our embassies and go back to our hostels, which is what we did,” the 24-year-old said on Tuesday from another bus to his hometown of Jhang in Punjab province.

“I called my family and told them about the situation,” Taukeer said.

The Pakistani embassy in Tehran has asked its nationals to report by Saturday evening. Hundreds of people arrived and brought essential items including clothes, laptops, textbooks, documents and cash.

Five buses left the embassy for Zahedan on Saturday night, a 1500km (932-mile) journey that took about 20 hours, winding through central Iran, passing cities such as Yazd, Isfahan and Kerman under the US-Israeli offensive.

During their trip, the students were trying to get updates on the Iran war, which soon escalated into a regional conflict, with Iran’s retaliatory attacks targeting US assets across the Gulf and Saudi Arabia.

Another Pakistani student, Kainat Maqsood, said he learned of the assassination of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei during a “deeply distressing” trip.

“This is very devastating news for us,” he said as he waited to board his next bus to Multan, Punjab. “He was a leader that many of us looked up to and now he’s gone.”

‘The whole bus was silent’

From Jahedan, the Pakistani border town of Taftan is about 100km (62 miles) away. For most of their journey, the passengers had no mobile signal.

“We were all very scared. The journey was at night and we didn’t know what was going to happen,” Taukeer said. “The whole bus was silent. Everyone was praying.”

The buses crossed into Pakistan on Sunday evening. Around 1,000 civilians, including around 400 students, have returned to the country through the Taftan border in Chagai district and the Gabd-Rimdan border in Gwadar district in the last three days, Pakistani officials said on Tuesday night.

Both border crossings come in Balochistan, Pakistan’s most volatile province, where deadly separatist violence has increased in recent months. A convoy from Iran has been restricted by local authorities from any night travel due to security concerns.

But now, the students were finally able to talk to their families. “Since I finally got my mobile working after entering Pakistan, I told my family that I will join them soon,” said Raza, a resident of Skardu in the scenic Gilgit-Baltistan region.

‘I want to go back’

On Monday morning, the buses left for Quetta, the capital of Balochistan – another arduous 12-hour journey through the barren expanse of Pakistan’s largest province. From Quetta, the students left for their respective hometowns.

“I am very tired and want to come home to see my parents,” Taukeer said Tuesday evening, listening to Zhang on the telephone over the repeated honking of his bus.

Iran hosts about 35,000 Pakistanis, according to officials, including about 3,000 students in various institutions in Tehran, Isfahan, Zanjan and Yazd, among other Iranian cities.

When Pakistani students escape the war in Iran, their career prospects weigh heavily on their minds.

“I have only two to three months left to complete my degree. I have moved to Tehran in 2021 and there is no way I will lose my degree with little time left,” said Taukeer, who is in the final semester of his MBBS programme.

Raza, who is in the final semester of his MBBS degree, however, wondered if he would be able to return to his college.

“I have to go back. I want to go back, I only have one year left,” he said. “But I don’t know, realistically, if I can. I really hope things improve and I get a chance to come back. We just have to sit and wait.”

Like Raza, Maqsood’s program is less than a year old. But she wants to return to Iran as more than just an academic.

“There is no other country that fights for Muslims the way Iran does. I want to come back to show my solidarity,” he said before boarding his bus to Multan.

Additional reporting by Sadullah Akhtar in Quetta, Balochistan, Pakistan