One of the several dozen Indian men who were lured to Russia with the promise of a good job and then forced into the Russian military has reportedly been killed.
The circumstances of his death are unclear, but the victim was said to be among the Indians sent to fight for Russia in Ukraine.
Asaddudin Owaisi, president of the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) party, told The Hindu on Wednesday that the family of 30-year-old Muhammad Asfan learned of his death after making repeated efforts to discover his whereabouts.
“An Indian Embassy staffer confirmed that Asfan passed away,” Owaisi said. He did not have details about exactly where, or when, Asfan died.
Asfan’s brother Imran said he was one of many Indian men duped by a “travel agent” named Faisal Khan, who runs a YouTube channel for tourists and job-seekers called Baba Vlogs. This operation allegedly lures impoverished Indian men with promises of good jobs in places like the United Arab Emirates but then abandons them in Russia, where they are arrested as undocumented migrants and forced to join the military.
Some victims alternately say they were offered support positions in the Russian military, with good pay and promises of no combat role, only to find themselves forced onto the front lines in Ukraine after minimal training. Muhammad Asfan seemed to fall in the latter category.
“On November 13, they were made to sign a one-year agreement, which was in Russian, a language he did not know. Believing the agent, he signed the agreement,” his brother said.
The family last heard from Asfan two months ago, when he contacted them from the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don to say he was being deployed to the front lines in Ukraine. His brother Imran said the family heard from another Indian pressed into Russian military service that Muhammad “had been wounded by a bullet.”
The Asfan family lives in Hyderabad, where the AIMIM party is based. Owaisi said several families have sought his assistance in finding husbands, sons, and brothers who vanished after accepting overseas employment.
Owaisi said he wrote the Indian embassy in Moscow to complain that “all these young men were cheated,” and the travel agents who lured them into Russian military service should be “sent to jail.”
The Indian embassy in Moscow acknowledged Asfan’s death on Tuesday:
We have learnt about the tragic death of an Indian national Shri Mohammed Asfan. We are in touch with the family and Russian authorities. Mission will make efforts to send his mortal remains to India.@MEAIndia
— India in Russia (@IndEmbMoscow) March 6, 2024
India Today reported on Tuesday that Asfan was survived by his wife and two children.
The death of another Indian, a 23-year-old named Hemal Ashwin Mangue from Gujarat, was reported last week. Mangue was reportedly killed in the Donetsk region of Ukraine near the Russian border on February 21, but the circumstances of his death were not made clear.
