Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar announced on Sunday that three special commercial flights have been arranged to repatriate 540 Pakistani students from Kyrgyzstan today.
At a press conference in Lahore with Information Minister Attaullah Tarar, Dar, who also serves as the foreign minister, stated, “Yesterday, about 130 students returned to Pakistan on commercial flights. Today, three special commercial flights have been arranged to bring back 540 more students, raising the total to 670.”
He mentioned that the government has also coordinated with the air force to operate a special flight with a capacity of around 130 seats, and the embassy has informed the students. “So far, about 50 students have expressed their intention to take this flight,” he said.
This development follows the arrival of more than 100 students in Lahore last night, after mob violence in Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan, resulted in injuries to five Pakistani students according to the Kyrgyz health ministry.
Kyrgyz police reported deploying forces in the capital on Friday to control the violence, during which hundreds of Kyrgyz men attacked buildings housing foreign students, including Pakistanis. The Pakistani embassy in Bishkek stated that the attacks on foreign students, including those from Pakistan, occurred following a brawl with Egyptian nationals on May 13.