SRINAGAR: Anxious family members of around 300 Kashmiri students stuck in the coronavirus-hit Iranian capital of Tehran on Monday assembled in front of Raj Bhavan in Srinagar to plead with Lieutenant Governor GC Murmu to promptly arrange for their evacuation from a city almost in lockdown.One of the desperate faces in the crowd was that of Tariq Bazaz, whose son is studying medicine at Tehran University of Medical Sciences. He was disappointed that Murmu didn't meet anyone. "We would have liked to tell him personally how worried we are, but the lieutenant governor's aides took our petition and sent us back," Bazaz said.Official sources said the Union Territory administration, including chief secretary BVR Subrahmanyam, had passed on information about the Kashmiri students stranded in Iran to the ministry of external affairs and was awaiting an update.The students, most of them girls, have been confined to their dormitories for a week amid reports of the coronavirus death toll in Iran shooting up to 66, the highest outside China. The Iranian government has shut all educational institutions till April 23.Medical student Mubashir Mir, whose family lives in Srinagar's Jawahar Nagar neighbourhood, hasn't stepped out of his college dormitory in Tehran for more than a week, his elder sister Saima Mir said. "His semester exams were to be held in a few days, but it seems even classes won't resume anytime soon. Tehran airport has been shut and there is no way out for him unless the government steps in," she told TOI.Bazaz's son Haseeb has told his family that he and the rest of the foreign students at the hostel wake up every morning feeling they are caught in a "hopeless" situation. “Our son is in constant touch with us over phone, but we aren't sure how he will manage if the impasse continues. The Indian government should take a decision on evacuating our wards from there as early as possible,” the boy's father said.Mujtaba Shah, whose father Imtiyaz Shah is the principal of Government Polytechnic College in Kupwara, was to return to India via Sharjah before the Tehran airport lockdown, but the flight didn't take off. “I tried all possible means to get my son back home, but nothing worked out. I had bought an air ticket for him the moment all educational institutions in Iran shut down. Unfortunately, Sharjah airport wouldn't allow flights from Tehran to land. By the time I changed the route, Tehran airport was sealed," Shah said.Ume Parvez, another medical student, was to be back home on February 25, but his flight was cancelled. "We are scared. Please do something for us. We just want a flight out of Iran," he said over phone on Monday.Congress's Ghulam Nabi Azad, who is the Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, is said to have made a personal appeal to external affairs minister S Jaishankar to get the Kashmiri students back home from Iran.The Indian embassy in Iran has set up an emergency helpline — 98-9128109115 — for citizens stranded there. The Srinagar district administration has also set up a helpline for students residing in Iran.“Indian students in Tehran may contact the embassy helpline. Given the large number of requests and emails, our helpline +919419028251 (Srinagar/Kashmir) will be functional 24*7 for any assistance. Thankful to @MEAIndia for the prompt response,” tweeted Shahid Iqbal Choudhary, the deputy commissioner of Srinagar.