Guwahati: Raju Bista, the Member of Parliament from Darjeeling, said he is doing his best to safely rescue a Kalimpong resident recruited into the Russian Army.
“Late last night, I received an urgent request for (the) evacuation of Urgen Tamang, of Ward 19, Kalimpong who was duped by his agents and has apparently been recruited into (the) Russian Army,” Bista said in a statement.
“I have reached out to all the relevant authorities, including our External Affairs Ministry, (the) Indian Embassy in Russia and the highest office in our nation. I am using all resources at my end to ensure his safe repatriation back home. I am most hopeful that we will succeed. I also request the people from our region to be extremely careful when applying for positions abroad, and not get swayed by tall claims of the agent,” he added.
This is not the first incident that Indians have been duped into working and recruiting for the Russian Army, and earlier this month, the Ministry of External Affairs too acknowledged the same.
“Several Indian nationals have been duped to work with the Russian army. We have strongly taken up the matter with the Russian government for early discharge of such internationals,” spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal was quoted as saying. “A case of human trafficking has been registered against several agents,” he added.
The Central Bureau of Investigation of India had also raided several “major human trafficking networks” targeting “gullible youths” with offers of lucrative jobs abroad. The CBI identified at least “35 instances” of Indian citizens being sent abroad as a result of these operations.
“These traffickers have been operating as an organized network and were luring Indian nationals through social media channels like YouTube etc and also through their local contacts/agents for highly paid jobs in Russia,” the CBI said in a statement.
Following their recruitment, Indian nationals were “trained in combat roles and deployed at front bases in Russia-Ukraine War Zone against their wishes, thus, putting their lives in grave danger.”
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