Baqar Raza, the Indian who travelled to Iran for pilgrimage with his wife, had to cut short his trip due to the war between Israel and Iran. In an exclusive conversation with News X, Raza tells how he and his wife escaped from war-torn Iran by coordinating with the officials of the Indian Embassy in Tehran. Raza believes that a miracle saved him and his wife.
Q1) Sir, if you could narrate how did you cope with the stressful situation when you heard airstrikes from Israel?
Answer) During the day, while taking rest in my room, a blast ripped near our hotel. Its sound was soul-rattling.
It woke me up in panic, and I rushed towards the window and saw that an aerial attack was taking place. Immediately after this, the Iranian army swung into action, attempting to intercept incoming drones and missiles from Israel. Initially, I believed it would be over in minutes, but that did not happen.
The assault unfolded in four successive waves within an hour, and each wave brought multiple drones and missiles. After the second wave of attack, it became clear that staying on the ninetieth floor was no longer safe.
I grabbed my wife’s hand and we ran for our lives, rushing down to the ground floor lobby.
During that moment, deep inside me, I believed that God alone would save us and everyone else. Coincidentally, we were staying very close to the sacred Shrine of Imam Reza (AS) located in Iran’s Mashhad.
Q2) How did you manage to establish contact with the officials of the Indian embassy in Tehran?
Answer) Our internet connection was unstable, coming and going intermittently. Since we were using iPhones, the issue with the network was more severe.
This made it incredibly difficult for us to contact the Indian embassy. Other people who had Android devices seemed to be managing slightly better. Then later on, I managed to call the Indian embassy in Tehran.
They asked me to fill out a Google form and follow them on social media for further instructions. I conveyed to them that we didn’t have access to social media due to connectivity issues.
Embassy officials assured me that they had my number and would reach out to me.
I got worried due to I called one of my sisters in India and explained the situation to her. She immediately began searching for ways to help me.
In no time, she found a Telegram channel operated by the Indian Embassy in Iran. She shared the link with me and urged me to join it. She too joined it just to stay updated. Although I couldn’t actively communicate on the channel due to poor internet, I was receiving notifications.
Later, my brother-in-law called me from abroad and gave me the contact number of an Indian embassy staff member based in Qom. I immediately called him and, while speaking to him, realised that he was a Hindi-speaking Iranian.
While listening to him, I found him to be kind, calm, and reassuring. He promised that there was nothing to worry about and he would do everything possible to help us.
I felt that something was finally moving in the right direction. After an hour, he called me back and asked me to report to a specific location in Qom the next morning.
We arrived at the given location on time the next day and from there boarded a bus which took us to Mashhad from Qom. It was a long and uncertain ride, but we knew we were finally heading towards safety.
Q3) How did your wife react when she first heard the sound and fury of blasts caused by the airstrikes from Israel?
Answer) During the first wave of the attack, my wife remained relatively calm as I was. However, as the second and third waves of attack began, her anxiety deepened.
I could see fear engulfing her. After the second attack, she quietly packed a small bag with our passports and all the money we had. She hung it over her shoulder and kept it closer to her, as we could be forced to leave the place anytime for a safer place.
When we finally made it to the ground floor lobby of the hotel, she was still shaken. At that moment, a police officer entered the hotel premises.
Seeing us in distress, he spoke to us in Persian. The hotel receptionist translated his words into English for us. The translated version was “You are our guests and we are your hosts.
The enemy would have to kill us first before harming our guests. Trust us and believe in the strength of Iran’s armed forces. We will not let them cause even the slightest of harm to you.”
Q4) Were you close to the nuclear facility of Natanz when US bombed it?
Answer) While driving from Qom to Isfahan with my wife on June 12, 2025, at 3 pm, we passed near the Natanz nuclear facility.
At that time, we could not even imagine that the same location would soon become the target of a major bombing. The journey was serene, and the region is known for its rosewater distilleries and fresh fruit orchards.
The very next morning, we were in Isfahan and woke up to the news that Israel had launched an attack on Iran, striking its industrial nuclear sites.
Due to this, we had to cancel our plans for the day and return to Qom immediately. We decided to avoid the route to Natanz and instead chose a different route that took us through smaller towns and villages.
However, life along the way seemed completely undisturbed. The markets were bustling, and there was no sign of panic buying (something we never witnessed in Iran throughout), and schools and offices remained open.
We stopped at a mosque for Friday prayers, where a large crowd had gathered.
After the prayer, there was a collective dua for the martyrs killed in the Israeli attack, followed by strong condemnation of the assault on Iran’s sovereignty.
We witnessed the active participation of women in the protests. That night, before going to bed, I began reading more about the Fordow nuclear facility, which I learned was just 20 km from Qom.
As I dug deeper, I discovered that Fordow is considered one of the most secure nuclear sites in the world, located deep underground.
Israel, it seemed, did not possess the weaponry capable of penetrating its defenses, and even the US’s most powerful bunker-buster bombs, weighing 30,000 pounds, could only reach about 60 meters underground.
Fordow sites are about 80 meters deep. This made me realise that there is no real risk of radioactive fallout, and for the first time in some days, I had a sound sleep.
