Kolkata (West Bengal) [India], March 12: Somali Shaw, a medical student at a college in Kyiv, Ukraine, had given up hope of returning to India alive. Shaw spent a week in a dark room in Kyiv with other Indian students amid gunshots, bombing, and missile assaults. The Ukrainian officials called Somali two days ago to arrange for her safe return to India on a special airline.
Thanks to Kuntal Ghosh, the head of the Kolkata-based non-governmental organisation (NGO) Suboj Sangi, who worked with the West Bengal government to return Shaw and 14 other Bengali students and employees who were stuck in war-torn Ukraine back to India.
“We got information about 10 students and five working professionals caught in Ukraine war and they were financially weak to return to India,” said Kuntal Ghosh, founder, and president of Suboj Sangi. For the safe repatriation of the students and working professionals trapped in Ukraine, we called West Bengal Chief Minister Mamta Banerjee and other key bureaucrats and ministers. They were brought under the Operation Ganga evacuation mission after the administration collaborated with the central government.”
Ghosh stated that the 15 Indians who returned to India are from Bangalore, Chennai, and Kerala. Abhishek Bandyopadhyay and young leader Sayani Ghosh inspired him to take up the responsibility for the safe return of the Indians stuck in Ukraine.
“We worked closely with the Bengal government and the federal government.” The Centre was given the names of the students and working professionals, as well as their current locations in Kyiv, Ukraine. “They (Indian students and professionals) were advised to relocate to the Ukrainian border, where they were picked up and boarded on a special rescue flight to India,” Ghosh explained.
Those rescued from Ukraine are identified as Somali Shaw, Sunil Trivedi, Pradip Nayak, Chitro Swami, Praveen Deshmukh, SK Ali, Faruk Sekh, John Malik, Sanju Rao, Smriti Deshai, Anju Jaiswal, Wasim Akram, Rohit Dutta, and Yasir Rahaman.