It’s been more than four months now that Ahmad (name changed), an Iraqi student studying in the city, has completed his course. However, instead of returning home, he has been anxiously following news on the internet about the strife in his country, due to which he is unable to return to Iraq.
Like him, several other students here are also stuck. “We are all waiting for a solution. My city in Al Anbar district is where the fighting is going on between the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and the military,” said Ahmad, who studied at Osmania University (OU).
Approach UN office
Yahya (name changed), another Iraqi student here, said that a friend of his, who had studied at Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University (JNTU), was in a similar position. His friend and Omer had to approach the United Nations office in New Delhi to seek extension of their visas, which had expired.
“I keep in touch with my family through the internet and phone. The networks are available only intermittently, so when it is active, I talk to them,” said Ahmad, and explained that the north and eastern parts of Iraq are “more or less safe.” It is cities like Mosul, Tikrit, and Arbil which are witnessing a lot of violence, he said.
Ahmad also mentioned that he was trying to get his family to move to the northern areas, which are “safe and dominated by Kurds”, a prominent ethnic group in Iraq.
According to Ahmad, the ISIS militant group is ‘too extremist’ and has managed to gain notoriety over other ‘moderate’ groups fighting in Iraq. “The people know that the ISIS is not good for them, but they have no choice now. The war is also a conflict between the Sunni people, who have no army and the Shia-dominated government,” he opined.
Yahya, however, had something else to say. “The ISIS is a barbaric group. They will simply kill anyone they find, whether Sunni or Shia,” he said and denied that there was any sort of conflict between the two sects of Islam.
‘Final war’
Iraqi students studying in the city said that one of the reasons why many young men from India and other countries are joining the ISIS is because they are brainwashed into believing that it is the final war or ‘Armageddon of Islam’. “They are made to think that they are fighting for the cause of all Muslims and Islam across the world,” said Ahmad.
He and Yahya said that many people are joining the ranks of ISIS from Afghanistan as well. Incidentally, Ahmad also claimed that apart from ISIS, there are many other groups fighting to take control in Iraq, including “moderate” ones.
