Not even in his worst nightmares did Saifur Rehman (22) from Haridaspaur in West Bengal’s Hooghly district had thought that his search for a better livelihood would land him in a war zone.
Saifur Rehman, who has been working as a goldsmith in Aden in Yemen for the past two years, was in for the shock of his life when he heard artillery and tank shells exploding outside his residence last week.
As mediapersons jostled for position, Mr. Rehman narrated his ordeal in Aden where he was cooped up along with other Indian workers in a cramped room without proper food and water for days. “I, along with 14 other workers, spent days in a small room without proper food and water as tank shells pounded the city. About 27 workers from Bengal have returned with us,” Mr. Rehman told mediapersons at the Howrah station on Friday.
Visibly traumatised, he shuddered when asked whether he would ever return to Yemen. “I will never go back there,” he said. Saifur Rehman’s father, Rafikul Rehman, said that he wanted his son to work in India. “But he has to take the final call in this regard,” added Rafikul Rehman, a wage labourer.
Sheikh Zahiruddin from Haripal in Hooghly district, who returned with Saifur, said that he decided to go to Yemen to support his family.
