Iranians urge PM Modi to facilitate their return from Attari border

Caught in the web of the Indo-Pak conflict are Iranian tourists who have been stranded at the Attari border for the past over a week, awaiting nod from the Indian Government to allow nationalities other than Pakistan citizens to cross over the border.

Staying in their small vanity van, “home on wheels”, they have parked themseves near the border waiting for the clearance. At least three vans are visible. All of these arrived in India separately to tour different destinations, tourist sites and see various colours of life in India.

In one of these is staying a couple who are reluctant to speak to mediapersons.

They urged Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to direct the immigration authorities at Attari to facilitate their passage to Iran via Pakistan.

Parked near Atari village “wheel on home” is the only refuge for retired Iranian teacher Elham Destani, who has been solo travelling India for the past nearly three months, said the authorities at the Attari border. The security officials said they had not been allowing them to cross over to Pakistan as they did not have orders or notice for other nationalities, except Pakistan citizens, to cross over the international land route.

Elham Destani felt sorry at the killing of tourists in Kashmir and expressed her condolences to their families, adding that the conflict between the two neighbours was unfortunate. “It is amazing that Iran is not an issue, yet its nationals cannot return to their home country. I am happy that Indians were allowed to return to their country, while Pakistani nationals were allowed a cross-over.”

She has been freshening up, washing her clothes, cooking meals and doing all kinds of necessary chores in the van. Narrating her daily ordeal, she said her daily meal consisted of brown bread and curd. Now, she is fed up eating the same stuff every day. She added that quality eatable stores are situated far in the city. Leaving nothing to chance, she daily queues up her van outside the gates of international land route, awaiting nod from the authorities. At night, she cannot go to the city to buy essentials as her van runs on solar energy.

For larger part of the day, they have to park their vans under the sun to charge it, which heats up the interiors making it unfit to sit inside. So they look for shade to rest and escape heat. The solo traveller from Teheran had sold off her flat to buy the van for sightseeing places in India and Pakistan. An extrovert, she is the only one ready to talk to media. She has been stuck here for the past nine days.

Left with only a week-long visa to stay in India, she is keen to go across the border to reach her home. She had arrived in India through land route on February 10. This is the only land route to gain entry to India from her country.

Commencing her journey from Teheran by crossing MirJaveh-Taftan, shared border between Iran and Pakistan, she visited different cities and locations in Pakistan to reach Lahore to enter India from the Wagah-Attari border. The objective of her visit was purely tourism during the course of her stay in India to see Rajasthan, Chandigarh, Delhi, Agra, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Ajanta Caves. She likes Indian homes, their loving and caring nature, besides their colourful life.