By Gurminder Samad | Chandigarh | September 12, 2025
Chandigarh: Raising alarm over what he termed as a “systemic collapse of responsibility”, Jalandhar Cantonment MLA Pargat Singh on Thursday accused both the Central and Punjab Governments of failing to stop the trafficking of Punjabi and North Indian youths into the Russian Army.
Speaking to reporters in Chandigarh, the Congress leader—who also serves as secretary of the All India Congress Committee—said that despite repeated advisories, Indian authorities had done little beyond issuing paper warnings. This, he alleged, has enabled traffickers and middlemen to lure unemployed youth with false job promises and push them into war zones.
Shocking Casualty Numbers Reported
According to Pargat Singh, 15 Punjabi youths were taken to Russia in July 2025. Within weeks, five had been killed, three went missing, and seven were forcibly conscripted.
“Across North India, 126 youths remain trapped in the Russian Army, and at least 15 are missing. Not a single substantive step has been taken to punish the nexus of agents responsible for these crimes, nor to repatriate stranded Indians or deliver justice to bereaved families,” he said.
He accused the Ministry of External Affairs and the Indian Embassy in Moscow of dereliction of duty:
“Our youths are dying on foreign battlefields while families are left unsupported, uninformed, and denied even the dignity of adequate investigation or compensation.”
A Wider Human Trafficking Crisis
The MLA insisted these were not isolated cases but part of a coordinated, large-scale human trafficking operation. Families, he said, were not only robbed of their children but also deprived of insurance benefits and official recognition due to government inaction.
Survivor testimonies and relatives’ accounts, Singh added, reveal abandonment by Indian diplomatic missions. Families are left to suffer severe psychological and financial distress without state assistance.
Demands for Action
Pargat Singh called for:
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Direct diplomatic talks with Russia to secure release and repatriation of Indian nationals.
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Immediate prosecution of all traffickers and agents under anti-human trafficking laws.
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Compensation and long-term support for families who lost relatives or whose kin are missing.
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A joint task force of the Centre, Punjab Government, and the Ministry of External Affairs to ensure a permanent end to the exploitation.
“Anything less than decisive, public government intervention now would be a willful continuation of this human tragedy,” he warned.
Background and Official Response
This is not the first time such concerns have been raised. Punjab, facing high unemployment and outward migration pressures, has long been vulnerable to illegal travel agents promising jobs abroad. Reports of Indians trapped in Russia’s ongoing conflict have surfaced repeatedly in recent years.
The Central Government, however, presented a far lower figure in December 2024, informing the Lok Sabha that only 19 Indians were serving in the Russian armed forces, with others “already discharged.”
But with Punjab politicians like Pargat Singh now citing much higher numbers, the discrepancy raises questions over the true scale of the crisis—and the adequacy of the official response.
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