Over 260 return from riot-hit Kyrgyzstan
RAWALPINDI: Most of the Pakistanis living in violence-hit parts of Kyrgyzstan arrived here on Tuesday by two special C-130 flights.
The body of Ali Raza, a student who lost his life during the ethnic violence in the Central Asian country, was also brought home.
The first flight carrying 134 people landed at Chaklala airbase at 4.15am and the second flight with 127 passengers, mostly students, arrived in the evening.
Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi received the body of Ali Raza, a fourth-year student of engineering.
A 17-member medical team, headed by Dr Zulfiqar Ghauri of the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences, and four ambulances were at the airbase for treatment and care of those who arrived.
“The mortuary of the Pims hospital was on stand-by for keeping the body,” Dr Zulfiqar said.
The Minister for Information and Broadcasting, Qamar Zaman Kaira, received the Pakistanis arriving by the first flight. He told reporters that all remaining students stranded in Kyrgyzstan would be brought back safely by the evening.
The second flight, carrying the coffin and the remaining stranded Pakistanis, also brought some Kyrgyz women who had married Pakistani students.
The students were happy on rejoining their families, but the Kyrgyz women were sobbing and appeared anxious about the safety of their parents and other relatives back home. The foreign minister handed over the body to Ali Raza’s family transporting it to his home in Toba Tek Singh district.
Mr Qureshi said the government would do its best to help the students return to Kyrgyzstan for resuming their studies.
Ahmad Hassan adds:
The first C-130 Hercules sent by the National Disaster Management Authority brought home 109 men, 23 women and two children.
Eighteen of the students hail from Sialkot, 15 from Peshawar, 12 from Gujranwala, nine each from Mardan and Multan, eight each from Gujrat and Lahore, six each from Karachi and Swat, five each from Chaman and Islamabad, three each from Faisalabad and Rawalpindi and one or two from Swabi, Nawabshah, Bahawalnagar, Dera Ghazi Khan, Attock, Azad Kashmir and other areas.
Speaking in the Senate, the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Malik Ammad Khan, said of the 1,200 Pakistanis studying in Kyrgyzstan, 600 were in Osh alone. The city has seen the worst violence during the turmoil.
The minister said the government had taken all necessary steps, including summoning the Kyrgyz charge d’affaires to the Foreign Office to seek an assurance that all Pakistani citizens would be provided protection.
Mr Ammad said Ali Raza had, in all probability, met an accidental death.
He said the plane sent to bring home the trapped Pakistani students had also carried seven tons of relief goods to Kyrgyzstan.
In reply to a question, he said the government would take up the matter of the students’ interrupted studies with Kyrgyz authorities after the return of normality.
Foreign Office spokesman Abdul Basit said that about 20 Pakistanis were still in Osh and they would hopefully be brought back soon.
He said Pakistani officials were in touch with the stranded people and food items, blankets and medicines had been dispatched to them.
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Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi (L) with others carry the flag-draped casket of Ali Raza at the military base in Rawalpindi near Islamabad June 15, 2010. Ali, a Pakistani student ,was killed during recent ethnic riots in Kyrgyzstan's riot-stricken city of Osh.
