Indian student shot in Ukraine discharged from hospital, says will start afresh with new dreams

Indian student Harjot Singh, who was severely injured with multiple bullet injuries while trying to flee war-torn Ukraine, has been discharged from the Army Base Hospital in Delhi Cantonment where he was undergoing treatment.

"My health is better than before, as I am here with my family," Harjot said, adding, "Yesterday I was discharged... the doctor said that my hands and feet will be treated for about 1 year. My financial condition is not good, my father has retired. I want the government to help me with further treatment... I have been told that I will have to take up the expenses of the therapy from now on."

Harjot talked at length about the incident which put him in a life-threatening situation.

"I had left for the railway station, but we were not allowed to board the train. We decided that we will leave for Lviv in a cab. There were three of us, we hired a cab, the other two people with me were from different countries," he said.

"When we started our journey, we had to clear three checkpoints, we cleared two checkpoints, but were sent back from the third one, where they told us to travel the next day in the morning," he added.

Describing the scenario when their car was fired upon, Harjot said, "As soon as our car reentered the city, we were fired upon. I was sitting in the back seat and bullets passed right in front of me through the car windows."

"We were hopeless so we sat in the base of the car, we were being fired upon from left and right by 7-8 people. They had AK-47s. We got out of the car to run for our lives. I lay down on the ground near a wall but was shot at, and the first bullet hit me on the side of my chest," Harjot said.

"I was hopeless... I was thinking that I won't survive this as we were being fired at from all sides, so I thought of running to the middle of the road so that I am shot and killed quickly. I rose up, and suddenly a second bullet hit me on my knee so I fell right where I stood up," he added.

Recalling the incident, the student further said, "I just lay there motionless for an hour and a half, so that I was assumed to be dead... I was in tremendous pain and bleeding a lot... I moved a little and I was shot at again, two bullets hit me on my right shoulder."

"I regained consciousness on the 2nd (of march) after that... doctors told me that I was lying on the road for 4-5 hours, and then brought to the hospital," he said.

The Indian student who was pursuing his studies in Information Technology in Kyiv said that he could not recognise the identity of soldiers as to whether they were Ukrainian or Russian.

He mentioned that the Indian embassy in Kyiv provided him with a driver who took him to Lviv, after which he was taken to the Ukraine-Poland border and subsequently to India in an Indian Air Force C-17 aircraft.

"I came back to India on 7th (of March), I was first taken to another hospital, but was shifted to the Army base hospital in Delhi Cantt the next day... my knee was operated upon on 10th... after that, I was there all these days," Harjot said.

Talking about his plans going forward, Harjot said, "My first priority right now is to recover, because I can think of doing anything else only if I recover... my focus is on myself... I have been given a new life by God, so definitely I will start again, with new dreams."

( With inputs from ANI )

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