ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Wednesday constituted an inquiry committee to establish what led to the mob attacks on its students in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, said the country’s Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar, as over 4,000 Pakistani nationals were brought back from the Central Asian state.
Dar visited Bishkek on Tuesday to address the concerns of young students from his country enrolled in various educational institutions who witnessed the mob violence last week.
According to some media reports, the situation went out of hand in Bishkek last Friday after videos of a brawl between Kyrgyz and Egyptian students went viral on social media, prompting groups of local residents to target university hostels and private lodgings of international students, including those from Pakistan.
Official figures shared by the Pakistan embassy in Kyrgyzstan reveal nearly 10,000 Pakistani students are enrolled in the Central Asian country, with about 6,000 in Bishkek. The frenzied violence forced them to confine themselves for several hours in their rooms without food and drinking water, prompting many of them to make evacuation requests online.
“The additional secretary administration of the foreign ministry, Muhammad Saleem, will head a fact-finding committee to look into the incident, including the reason for such developments and subsequent reaction of the Pakistani mission and the government,” Dar told the media in a news briefing.
He said the committee would coordinate with the Kyrgyz authorities to review all the findings and developments in Bishkek and submit its report within two weeks.
The deputy prime minister informed a total of 4,036 students had returned from Bishkek by last night.
“To date, 3,233 students have returned on commercial flights, while 513 have benefitted from special flights arranged by the federal government,” he added. “The special flights arranged by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government have also brought back 290 students.”
Dar said during his meeting with the Kyrgyz deputy PM, he inquired about the fate of the perpetrators of the violence and was told that the administration in Bishkek had zero tolerance in such matters.
“My counterpart told me that the Kyrgyz President had publicly announced that action would be taken [against those involved in the mob violence],” he added. “Many people have already been arrested by law enforcement agencies.”
Asked about the future of the returning students, he informed he had called for a meeting of the all stakeholders on Friday to look into the possibility of accommodating them in the Pakistani medical institutions.
Dar said he also found out that nearly 1,100 workers from Pakistan residing in Kyrgyzstan were being pursued for deportation by the government due to their illegal stay.
“I requested the Kyrgyz deputy prime minister to legalize them instead of deporting them and he agreed by saying that he would seek approval from the National Security Committee and Ministry of Immigration to make that possible,” he continued.
Dar said he had instructed the foreign secretary and the country’s diplomatic mission in Bishkek to pursue the issue until its implementation.
“This will benefit around 1,100 families in Pakistan,” he added.